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IOWA BIOGEAPHICAL SEEIES 

EDITED BY BENJAMIN F. SHAMBAUGH 



JAMES HARLAN 




JAMES IIAKLAN 



IOWA BIOGRAPHICAL SERIES 

EDITED BY BENJAMIN F. SHAMBAUGH 



JAMES HARLAN 

BY 
JOHNSON BRIGHAM 



THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 

IOWA CITY IOWA 1913 






11. «r B. 



EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

The career of James Harlan as depicted by 
Mr. Brigham in the following pages is 
typically western. It spans the first half 
century of the history of Iowa as a State, 
and offers a cross-sectional view of the 
momentous years of slavery agitation, war, 
and reconstruction. In the United States 
Senate from 1855 to 1865 and from 1867 to 
1873 Mr. Harlan was a prominent and 
influential figure. Especially was he active 
and successful in his advocacy of every 
measure which sought to benefit the people 
of the West. 

This biography, begun by Mr. Brigham in 
1906, was originally designed and outlined 
as a two-volume work. In order, however, 
to bring it within the compass of the Iowa 
Biographical Series it became necessary to 
condense it into a single volume — a long 
and laborious task, the carrying out of 
which has necessarily greatly delayed the 
publication of the book. 

Benj. F. Shambaugh 

Office of the Superintendent and Editor 

The State Historical Society op Iowa 

Iowa City 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

A STUDY of the life of James Harlan reveals a 
man of rugged sincerity, a statesman of rare 
forensic and constructive ability and large 
capacity for leadership. The story of his youth 
and young manhood is one of privation and of 
resolute struggle for the attainment of an 
education. His career as a statesman is inter- 
woven with the anti-slavery agitation and 
legislation immediately preceding the first 
election of Abraham Lincoln, with the history 
of the War of the Rebellion, and with the 
confused and trying period of Reconstruction. 
The years of his retirement — years full of 
usefulness in public and semi-public service and 
correspondingly full of honors — present a 
pleasing contrast to the concluding years in the 
lives of not a few of his contemporaries. 

In the writing of this biography the author's 
purpose has been to follow, as far as practic- 
able, the Autobiographical Manuscript and 
Papers which James Harlan himself prepared 
and arranged. Mr. Harlan began the prep- 



X AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

aration of this valuable work early in the 
nineties, his original purpose evidently having 
been to write an autobiography. But later 
that purpose gave way to another, which w^as to 
gather in chronological order all the letters and 
papers which he had retained and to make such 
running comment on them as was deemed 
necessary, with a view to leaving the entire 
collection, along with the autobiographical 
chapters, as so much material for a biography 
which he must have known would at some time 
be attempted. The unfinished autobiography, 
the letters and papers, the original manuscripts 
of addresses and speeches, together with the 
published record of his Congressional career, 
constitute a wealth of source material which 
has been found extremely satisfying and at 
the same time embarrassing because of its 
abundance. 

Concerning his career as Secretary of the 
Interior in the Cabinet of President Johnson 
there is little data beyond Mr. Harlan's one 
official report and his later letters and speeches 
defending his official course from misrepre- 
sentation and false charges. But the high 
purpose which prompted him to respond to 
President Lincoln's call and to remain in the 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE ^i 

Cabinet for a time under President Johnson is 
fully developed in his correspondence. 

Although the Autohio graphical Manuscript 
would doubtless have been revised by Mr. 
Harlan had he lived to complete his task, it has 
not been deemed wise to attempt alterations in 
the text of the numerous passages quoted in 
the following pages. Statements of fact have 
been verified by comparison with newspapers 
and other contemporary sources. In dealing 
with Mr. Harlan's career in Congress the 
author has depended chiefly on the published 
record as found in the Congressional Globe. 
Newspapers were also freely consulted to learn 
the attitude of the public, both in Iowa and in 
the Nation at large, toward Mr. Harlan during 
his public career. 

The author of this biography was not favored 
with an intimate personal acquaintance with 
James Harlan. In his youth, however, it was 
his privilege to hear the Senator's White House 
speech on Reconstruction, immediately follow- 
ing the last public utterance of President 
Lincoln. Ever since that memorable occasion 
the name of James Harlan has been indelibly 
associated in the author's mind with that of 
Abraham Lincoln — an association which has 



Xll 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



imparted an added zest to the later study of 
the Iowa statesman's career. Years afterward 
(early in the nineties) it was the author's 
pleasure to know Mr. Harlan personally, and 
to hold a somewhat extended correspondence 
with him. In response to his request Mr. 
Harlan prepared a paper for the Midland 
Monthly on The Iowa Soldiers' and Sailors' 
Monument and partially promised to write for 
the same publication his recollections of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. Thus the author's early impres- 
sions were strengthened and deepened by later 
association. 

Fortunately for his biographer and for 
future students of history, James Harlan left 
the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, 
to which reference has been made, in the care 
and custody of his daughter, Mrs. Eobert T. 
Lincoln of Chicago, who, through the kind 
offices of Judge W. I. Babb of Aurora, Illinois, 
and of his son, Mr. Max W. Babb of Milwaukee, 
kindly placed these valuable papers at the 
author's disposal in the writing of this book. 
Thanks are due, therefore, first of all, to Mrs. 
Eobert T. Lincoln, Judge W. L Babb, and Mr. 
Max W. Babb. 

To Professor Benj. F. Shambaugh, editor of 



I 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE xiii 

the Iowa Biogeaphical Series and Superin- 
tendent of The State Historical Society of 
Iowa, the author is under many obligations for 
helpful encouragement and counsel. 

Among the many others who have rendered 
valuable assistance mention should first be made 
of the laborious and keenly critical preparation 
of the manuscript for the printer and of the 
careful preparation and verification of the 
notes and references by Dr. Dan E. Clark, 
Assistant Editor in The State Historical 
Society of Iowa. 

The author is under obligations also to Mrs. 
Alice L. Taylor, Mr. W. F. Kopp, and Mr. Geo. 
B. McKibbin, and to the editors and publishers 
of Mt. Pleasant newspapers for kindnesses 
extended during his visit to Mr. Harlan's old 
home, and to Mr. Edgar R. Harlan and his 
associates in the Historical Department of Iowa 
for access to the wealth of material in the 
newspaper files in that department. Mention 
should also be made of the generous aid and 
counsel of Hon. Charles Aldrich, Dr. William 
Salter, Mr. C. M. Snyder, and Miss Mary R. 
Whitcomb — all of whom have departed this 
life since the writing of this biography was 
begun in 1906. The appreciative response to 



xiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE 

letters of inquiry received by the author from 
Hon. Jacob Rich of Dubuque, Hon. George D. 
Perkins of Sioux City, J. L. Waite, Esq. of 
Burlington, and the late Dr. Andrew S. Draper 
of New York, should not be overlooked in the 
author's acknowledgment of indebtedness. The 
exhaustive index was compiled by Mr. Jacob 
Van der Zee, Research Associate in The State 
Historical Society of Iowa. 

Johnson Brigham 

The State Library 
Des Moines Iowa 



CONTENTS 

I. Pioneer Life in the Woods op Indiana 1 

II. Boyhood and Youth 7 

III. College Life 16 

IV. Marriage and Removal to Iowa . . 35 
V. Candidate for State Superintendent 41 

VI. Election Contests 51 

VII. Lawyer Surveyor and College 

President 64 

VIII. First Election to the Senate . . 79 

IX. First Winter in Washington ... 90 

X. The Contest in the Senate . . . 102 

XI. The Lecompton Constitution and 

THE Deficiency Bill 108 

XII. The Pacific Railroad Bill in 1859 . 120 

XIII. State Politics in 1859 130 

XIV. The Homestead Bill 136 

XV. Opposition to Disunion 145 

XVI. The Beginning op the War .... 157 

XVII. The Legislation of 1861-1862 . . .165 

XVIII. The Years of Gloom 176 

XIX. Secretary of the Interior .... 192 

XX. Harlan and Kirk wood 213 

XXI. Reconstruction and Impeachment . 222 



xvi CONTENTS 

XXII. Charges op Dishonesty 235 

XXIII. Defense of President Grant . . . 252 

XXIV. The Harlan-Allison Contest . . . 260 
XXV. Credit Mobilier 275 

XXVI. The Honors of Retired Life . . . 283 
XXVII. The Convention Speech of 1893 . . 297 

XXVIII. Last Years 306 

XXIX. Speeches and Addresses 317 

XXX. Character and Services 339 

Notes and References 349 

Index 383 



Pioneer Life in the "Woods of Indiana 

There were two elements in the vanguard of 
the westward march of the American people. 
First came the real frontiersman — hunter, 
trapper, and Indian fighter. He blazed trails 
through the forest, made small clearings, and 
soon passed on to the westward ahead of 
advancing civilization. Close in his rear, how- 
ever, pressed the pioneer farmer, drawn from 
the settled communities in the East by the 
cheap and fertile lands of the West. 

It is in this second class of pioneers that the 
ancestors of James Harlan belong. Meager 
records of the family show that the Harlans 
came from England and Scotland at an early 
date and settled in South Carolina. Later they 
removed to Pennsylvania, where Silas Harlan 
was born on March 26, 1792. Eesponding once 
more to the lure of the frontier, the family 
emigrated to Warren County, Ohio. Here also 
came the Connelly family from Maryland, with 
their daughter Mary, who was born on March 
20, 1797. In 1818 Silas Harlan and Mary 



2 JAMES HARLAN 

Connelly, at the ages of twenty-six and twenty- 
one respectively, were united in marriage, and 
soon afterward the young couple found their 
places in the westward-moving tide of home- 
seekers, settling on Lamotte prairie in Clark 
County, Illinois. It was here that James 
Harlan was born on the twenty-sixth day of 
August, 1820.1 

Life on Lamotte prairie, however, was evi- 
dently not entirely to the liking of Silas Harlan, 
for in the spring of 1824, when James was 
between three and four years of age, the family, 
in which there were now four children, removed 
to Park County, Indiana. ^'This removal and 
settlement", wrote James Harlan in his Auto- 
biographical Manuscript, "commences my first 
distinct recollection of myself, of my parents, 
sisters and current events."^ 

The spot chosen for the new home was 
''midway between two streams known by the 
names of Big and Little Raccoon creeks, in a 
dense and unbroken forest."^ Six other fami- 
lies settled in that region at the same time, 
placing their cabins at short distances apart, 
thus forming an embryo community many 
miles from any other habitation of white men. 

The first task of the pioneer father was to 
provide a temporary "camp" to shelter his 
wife and children until the cabin could be 
erected. "But a single tree had been felled" 



PIONEER LIFE IN INDIANA 3 

when the family arrived on the site of their 
future abode. It was a large poplar or tulip 
tree ''of marvelous length", and five or six 
feet in diameter; and the trunk of this tree 
served as the back of the "camp". Two forked 
sapling poles were inserted in the ground at 
short distances from the fallen tree, a beam 
placed in the forks, and smaller poles were laid 
from this beam to the trunk of the tree. A 
covering was then made of "bark peeled from 
trees standing near, cut several feet in length, 
in tiers or courses, overlapping like shingles, 
which formed an excellent roof impervious to 
the most copious showers of rain." The sides 
were partially enclosed with bed-clothing and 
this rude shelter served as "kitchen, parlor, 
dining-room and sleeping rooms" for the 
family until the cabin was in readiness for 
occupancy.^ 

The building of the cabin was watched with 
great interest by the boy James, and the event 
seems to have been firmly impressed on his 
memory. In his Autobiographical Manuscript, 
written during his twilight years, he tells how 
his father cut the great "house-logs" from the 
forest and hewed out rafters, joist and flooring 
"puncheons". When the materials were all in 
readiness the six neighbors assembled early in 
the morning and by night the cabin was 
^'raised". Then for several days the father 



4 JAMES HARLAN 

was busied in completing the details: cutting 
the doorway, filling in the '^ chinks" between 
the logs, laying the floors, building a fire-place, 
and constructing a rude stairway to the ''loft". 
"This house was completed, I judge, in about 
six or eight days from the date of our arrival, 
with no tools other than a common chopping 
ax, an auger, frow and hand-saw, and without 
a single nail or screw, or metalic material of 
any description."^ 

Into this primitive but comfortable dwelling 
the family moved about the middle of May, 
1824. Land was cleared and crops were plant- 
ed, and the summer was spent in making 
improvements on the little homestead. Autumn 
brought a bounteous harvest, sufficient to pro- 
vide food for man and beast through the 
winter. Thus passed the first year of pioneer 
life in the woods of Indiana. 

It is a picture of almost idyllic simplicity 
w^hich James Harlan draws of the life of these 
seven families clustered together in the forest. 
''Each of these settlers was the owner of a 
team of horses, a few cattle, hogs, sheep and 
poultry. Their live stock lived with but little 
care from the owners on the spontaneous 
products of the country. The women converted 
the fleeces from the sheep into clothing. . . . 
The country was alive with game, such as deer, 
elk, bear, turkeys and grouse. So that these 



PIONEER LIFE IN INDIANA 5 

settlers had from the first year onward an 
abundance of excellent food and comfortable 
raiment, the fruits of their own industry, 
frugality and skill. . . . They had no 
churches nor schools; few books and no news- 
papers, nor officers of the law. Magistrates 
were not needed ; for there were no malefactors 
to punish. They were in constant daily inter- 
course; were unselfish and generous to each 
other ; [and] lived more as a single family than 
as separate households. And [they] made a 
pleasantry of their isolated condition and the 
absence of legal official relations ; naming their 
immediate district of country 'The New-Dis- 
covery', by which the neighborhood is still 
known — and giving to each other various 
military and civil titles, such as Squire, Judge, 
Captain, Major, Colonel, General and Gov- 
ernor. "° 

Silas Harlan was apparently a leader among 
his associates in ''The New Discovery", for he 
was given the title of "Governor", a sobriquet 
which adhered to him throughout his life. This 
dignified title seemed entirely appropriate to 
his son who describes him as "six feet two 
inches in height. ... In physical strength, 
action and powers of endurance .... he 
had no superior and few equals. He was not 
highly educated, — but more so than any of his 
early neighbors. He was a man of clear 



6 JAMES HARLAN 

perceptions, quick apprehension, and sound 
judgment."^ 

Such was the setting in which James Harlan 
spent his early years. The blood of hardy 
pioneers ran strong in his veins, and in him 
were developed independence, self-reliance, and 
broad vision born of life on the frontier. 



II 

Boyhood and Youth 

DuKiNG the spring and summer of 1825 James, 
now a ''husky" lad of five years, took his first 
lessons in husbandry: dropping corn and pull- 
ing weeds. And as the years went by he became 
more and more useful to his father as an 
assistant "in all manner of farm labor", and 
"attained a degree of skill and efficiency quite 
equal ' ' to that of his youthful neighbors.^ 

When, late in life, James Harlan recalled the 
scenes and events of his boyhood he paid grate- 
ful tribute to the "persistent patience" of his 
mother in her efforts to teach him to read. 
Progress was slow and uncertain since the 
library in the Harlan home at this time con- 
sisted of three volumes — the Bible, Hervey's 
Evening Meditations, and an Almanac, none of 
which appealed strongly to the childish interest, 
unless it was the last which was embellished by 
a number of wood cuts. But apparently the 
boy learned the first rudiments of the language 
at a very early age.^ 

Soon after the Harlan family had established 



8 JAMES HARLAN 

itself in "The New Discovery" other emigrants 
arrived, and in the course of a few years all 
available land in the vicinity was purchased 
and occupied by settlers. Then there appeared 
upon the scene that interesting frontier figure, 
the circuit-rider. 

One morning in early spring while James and 
his father were at work in the clearing not far 
from the cabin they saw a stranger on horse- 
back ride up to their gate, dismount, and enter 
the house. Shortly afterward a blast from the 
dinner-horn summoned the father, and on his 
return he informed James that the man was a 
Methodist preacher, that he had asked permis- 
sion to hold services at their house four weeks 
from that day, and that permission had been 
granted. Silas Harlan ''was not at this time a 
member of any church ; he had been brought up 
a Quaker ; but marrying out of the Society, and 
refusing to express his regrets for this breach 
of discipline" he had been dropped from the 
membership roll of the Society. 

The circuit-rider was one William Smith who 
was "organizing a four- weeks circuit, in the 
scattered settlements on the east side of the 
Wabash river .... And on the day ap- 
pointed, true to his engagement and punctual 
to the hour he again rode up " to the gate of the 
Harlan homestead. Here the neighbors were 
gathered to listen to the first sermon some of 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 9 

them had heard in many a year. The "preach- 
ings ' ' thus inaugurated were continued period- 
ically throughout several succeeding years, and 
the Harlan home was ' * a preaching place, and a 
home for Methodist Preachers" until James 
was a youth of eighteen years, when a rude 
church was built. The presence of these itin- 
erant ministers was looked upon as a privilege 
and a pleasure rather than as a burden. They 
were often *'men of excellent information, — 
some of them highly cultured, of pleasant man- 
ners, easy address, strong common sense and 
practical ability", and the boy James, "cuddled 
down in the chimney-corner", listened atten- 
tively to their conversation.^*' 

Along with the circuit-rider and the preaching 
of the Gospel came the pioneer school-master, 
who, true to the spirit of the Ordinance of 1787, 
pushed out into the borderland wherever there 
were children to be taught. When James 
Harlan was seven years of age a rude log 
schoolhouse, with its split-bottomed seats and 
oiled paper windows, was erected about one 
mile from the Harlan home. Here and in other 
schools of a similar character the lad was a 
pupil for periods of three months at a time until 
his thirteenth or fourteenth year, when he was 
given to understand that his education was 
complete. An accident, however, soon dis- 
abused his mind of this idea. 



10 JAMES HARLAN 

One day while in Rockville, the county seat, 
where he had been sent to purchase certain 
necessaries for the home, he entered a drug- 
store, and there ''beheld with amazement" 
what seemed to him to be ' * an immense number 
of books .... displayed on shelves around 
nearly one-half the store room". He innocently 
asked if they were all school books, and was 
informed "that a part of them were; and that 
the others constituted the public library of 
Park county." A new world was opened to the 
boy and he spent an hour or more in examining 
the wonderful volumes. Hume's History of 
England, which was especially attractive to him, 
was rented for a month; and he purchased and 
took home with him Olney's Geography and 
Atlas, an elementary work on chemistry, a work 
on mechanics, a small book entitled Natural 
Magic, and Walker's Dictionary. 

That was a red-letter day in the life of James 
Harlan. Hume 's history proved to be wonder- 
fully interesting, although frequent reference to 
the dictionary was necessary during its reading. 
Natural Magic was soon laid aside; but the 
geography, the chemistrj^, and the work on 
mechanics were studied with absorbing interest. 
He was wont to snatch a few minutes' time for 
reading before breakfast and at dinner time, 
and to spend his evenings in study, ''utilizing 
the light from an open fireplace, made satis- 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH H 

factory by a supply of dry hickory bark and 
splinters" which he had gathered for the pur- 
pose. **I seemed to myself a new being," he 
writes, ''and to have entered on another exist- 
ence." Thereafter, as opportunity offered, he 
added other books to his library.^^ 

This craving for knowledge received decided 
encouragement when, in the youth's seventeenth 
year, Jeremiah Terry from Kentucky came to 
teach the district school, and became a boarder 
in the Harlan home. Terry was "a lawj^er, by 
profession, a thorough scientific scholar, a good 
writer and an eloquent speaker", and in spite 
of the difference in their ages a warm friend- 
ship sprang up between him and James Harlan. 
Through him the boy acquired some knowledge 
of surveying and the use of logarithms, and 
learned to calculate eclipses and the movements 
of heavenly bodies. He also received instruc- 
tion in forensics and composition, his first 
public appearance being in an essay read before 
' ' The Lyceum ' ', a typical frontier institution of 
which Jeremiah Terry was the founder. 

The intellectual uplift which was stimulated 
by the companionship of the Kentucky school 
teacher was followed by a religious awakening. 
There was at the time no revival in the neigh- 
borhood, nor was any other unusual pressure 
brought to bear upon his mind. He had simply 
reached that period in life in which come pro- 



12 JAMES HARLAN 

found thoughts and undefinable intimations. 
Years afterwards he bore frequent testimony to 
his early belief in God's superintending provi- 
dence, a belief dating from his earliest recol- 
lection of his mother's earnest prayers and 
testimony. But in order to test the strength of 
his convictions he read a number of books, 
including the works of Hume, Voltaire, and 
Paine; with the result that he found nothing 
therein to shake his belief. 

After passing his eighteenth birthday James 
Harlan entered upon his career as an educator 
by teaching a district school four miles from 
his home. This was the first test to which he 
had put his meager attainments, and he seems 
to have given a fair degree of satisfaction both 
to himself and to his patrons. This winter, 
however, was a sad one for the young man. In 
October, 1838, his two brothers, Aaron and 
Cyrus, the one nearly eight and the other three 
years of age, succumbed to the dreaded disease, 
diphtheria ; and four months later a little sister, 
Mary, was stricken with the same malady. 

In the autumn following the close of this 
term of school young Harlan, accompanied by a 
school-fellow, made a journey on horseback to 
Lamotte prairie in Illinois, the place of his 
birth. ''This trivial incident is remembered 
vividly," he afterward wrote, "probably only 
because it was my very first experience of the 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 13 

kind. ... To find the right way on roads 
that neither of us had ever traveled, to ferry 
broad streams, to negotiate with total strangers 
for the necessary accommodations for ourselves 
and horses at rude roadside inns, on what 
seemed to us a very long journey, was an ex- 
hilarating experience ' '.^- 

Returning from this journey Harlan again 
taught school during the winter, receiving 
twenty-five dollars a month as compensation, a 
salary which was considered quite munificent at 
that time. Expenses, however, ''were cor- 
respondingly light; boarding and lodging cost- 
ing .... only seventy-five cents per 
week. ' ' 

The picturesque and boisterous ''hard-cider" 
campaign of 1840 brought to James Harlan his 
first real knowledge of politics. By instinct and 
education a Whig, he attended many of the 
rousing mass-meetings and joined vigorously 
with the youths of the neighborhood in singing 
"Tippecanoe and Tyler, too". It was a cam- 
paign of unparalleled enthusiasm. Men in all 
walks of life dropped their work and journeyed 
long distances to attend the great political 
gatherings of the year. In his Autobiograph- 
ical Manuscript Harlan relates how he and a 
number of friends made a pilgrimage to the 
battle-field of Tippecanoe, "where it was esti- 
mated that more than one hundred thousand 



14 JAMES HARLAN 

people encamped for a week to listen to 
speeches" by the great orators of the Whig 
party. *'For us country boys", he says, ''this 
countless mass of living human beings, covering 
the fields, filling the adjacent woods, and throng- 
ing the roads in every direction, was a great 
sight, the like of which had seldom been seen by 
anyone anywhere in this country. Here, I saw 
and heard, for the first time many of the most 
distinguished political orators of the nation. "^^ 

During the autumn of this year of political 
excitement young Harlan became a pupil in 
Park County Seminary at Rockville, seven miles 
from his home, where he was destined to learn 
a lesson not found in books. "I noticed at once 
an unmistakeable difference between myself and 
a large majority of my fellow students", he 
declares, "in that indescribable something 
which distinguishes a town-bred from a country- 
bred boy; a sort of silent assumption on the 
part of the town-boys .... of a conse- 
quential superiority over their country cousin". 

The experience was new and unpleasant to 
the farmer lad, who had supposed that social 
distinctions could find no place in democratic 
America, but were characteristic only of the 
royalty-ridden lands of Europe and the East. 
However, he soon forgot his first chagrin in the 
pleasure of his school work, and in the home of a 
cultured family he found the companionship 



BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 15 

which he craved. The lesson, moreover, was 
''not without its utility", for he "then and 
there learned of the existence of this fact which 
would have to be encountered in greater or less 
strength everywhere in society ".^^ 

Another three months as the teacher of a 
district school and work on the farm during the 
succeeding spring brought James Harlan nearly 
to his majority, the time when he would be 
called upon to take serious thought concerning 
his own future. One day in May, 1841, while 
they were at work in the field, Silas Harlan sur- 
prised his son by inquiring if he had decided 
upon any line of work for himself. He told the 
boy that if he had come to any decision, he need 
not wait until his twenty-first birthday to feel 
at liberty to enter upon his chosen work. But 
he suggested that the matter should be given 
thoughtful consideration. 

Brought face to face with the greatest prob- 
lem of his life thus far, the young man pondered 
the subject in his mind for several days. At 
the end of a week he astonished his father by 
announcing that he had decided ''to go to 
college". 



Ill 

College Life 

It was about May 31, 1841, that James Harlan 
packed his few belongings and set out to seek 
further education at Asbury University (now 
De Pauw University) located at Greencastle, 
Indiana, some eighteen miles eastward from his 
home. *'My first appearance in Greencastle, in 
search of the University was not imposing", is 
the autobiographical comment written in later 
life. "I walked across the country, along a 
newly made public high-way, at that time but 
little traveled, cut through a dense forest, for 
the most part uninhabited, carrying a fair sized 
bundle, made up of wearing apparel and several 
school books which I supposed I might need, ad- 
justed to my shoulders on the end of a walking 
stick. "15 

But the venerable statesman apparently had 
little relish for the ''stories composed in some 
small degree of facts buried out of sight with 
fiction", which had been told about his early 
strivings after knowledge, even though these 
stories were told for the purpose of stimulating 

16 



COLLEGE LIFE 17 

other youths to similar endeavors. Hence he 
took occasion to explain that his manner of 
traveling was adopted through choice and not 
through necessity. It was simply ''more con- 
venient, more economical, and less bother every 
way to walk" the eighteen miles, a distance by 
no means long for a farmer boy accustomed to 
following the plow all day across his father's 
fields. 

President Matthew Simpson i« received the 
embarrassed young man with kind cordiality, 
plied him with numerous questions, and in- 
structed him as to the formalities of registra- 
tion in the university. In order that he might 
have the healthful exercise of a long walk, he 
advised him to secure room and board with a 
family living three miles in the country, where 
other students were already boarding. Acting 
on this advice Harlan shouldered his bundle and 
added three miles to the eighteen already cov- 
ered by him, thus ending his first day at ''Old 
Asbury". 

Booming in the country, however, soon 
proved unpleasant. While the farm-house was 
comfortable, the table "well supplied with 
good palatable and nourishing food", and the 
members of the family agreeable, Harlan found 
that all of the desirable rooms had been taken 
before his arrival. The room assigned to him 
was in the attic directly under the roof, and 



18 JAMES HARLAN 

was consequently hot and stuffy. The young 
man's dissatisfaction was doubtless increased 
by a desperate attack of homesickness which so 
''took the starch out of" him that one day he 
sought a secluded spot and "blubbered" like a 
heart-broken child. The outcome was that he 
decided to move into town. Finding unoccupied 
rooms on the third floor of the college building, 
he and a student friend converted them into 
bachelor quarters. 

Harlan's first college term at Greencastle was 
marked by hard study and slow progress. His 
previous studies had not been in direct prepara- 
tion for college, and he found himself in 
competition with young men from all parts of 
the State, a majority of whom had had better 
advantages than himself. But he applied him- 
self diligently to work, and owing to the fact 
that he recited with nearly every class in the 
college, he soon became acquainted with each 
of the eighty or ninety students in attendance. 
He early joined one of the two literary societies, 
thus receiving training in public speaking which 
proved of great value in later life. In the close 
intimacy of this society there also sprang up 
many strong and lasting friendships. 

A perusal of the journal entries and letters 
of James Harlan during this period explains 
the influence which "Old Asbury" had on the 
public life of Indiana. It soon became evident 



COLLEGE LIFE 19 

to the young man that the learning of lessons 
would constitute only a small part of his college 
work. Declamations, orations, and debates 
came thick and fast, and those who developed 
ability in these directions were the college 
heroes. ^'^ Having tremblingly survived the first 
ordeal of declaiming in his turn at the morning 
chapel exercises, Harlan rapidly acquired that 
self-poise and confidence which in after years 
brought him to the front as an orator and 
debater. 

After two months in bachelor quarters, ar- 
rangements were made which were still more to 
Harlan's liking. Two of his sisters, Lydia and 
Jane, joined him in Greencastle, and became 
pupils in a school for young ladies. The three, 
therefore, ''kept house" in rented rooms, de- 
pending for the most part upon furniture and 
provisions brought from home. 

Thus the summer passed rapidly in the round 
of studies and "miscellaneous college and liter- 
ary society work", in addition to which the 
young man "had commenced to write articles 
for newspapers; and was occasionally called 
out to speak at public meetings". A month's 
vacation in October was occupied chiefly in work 
on the farm and in "collecting some small 
debts". November found him and his sisters 
again at Greencastle. But about the middle of 
December there came news of the serious illness 



20 JAMES HARLAN 

of their father, and in the midst of a heavy 
rain-storm James set out for home, swimming 
his horse across swollen streams and plunging 
through roads almost impassable. On the 
morning following his arrival at home he was 
prostrated with a fever, induced no doubt by 
the exposure of his journey, and he was con- 
fined to his bed for nearly three weeks. This 
illness afforded him an opportunity to experi- 
ence the 'inhuman medical treatment" of the 
time. ''I was visited every day by our family 
physician .... and bled copiously — un- 
til I fainted from the loss of blood — four 
several times," he writes, ^'and was otherwise 
subjected to the drastic treatment common with 
alopathic physicians ' '.^® 

The patient's strong constitution finally tri- 
umphed over the disease, and the treatment, 
and early in January, 1842, he resumed his 
student life. Soon afterward he achieved his 
first notable success as a debater. He was 
chosen by the Platonean Literary Society as its 
representative in the annual debate with the 
Philological, the rival society. The honor was 
a coveted one and was especially complimentary 
to Harlan, since he had been in college less than 
a year ''and was still pursuing studies chiefly 
in the preparatory department". 

With many misgivings he resolved to do his 
best to justify the choice of his friends and to 



COLLEGE LIFE 21 

uphold the reputation of his society. The de- 
bate occurred in March, on the last day of the 
winter term. The subject, clumsily expressed, 
was: "Is a Republican Government better cal- 
culated for durability than a monarchy!" and 
Harlan spoke on the negative. That he was not 
carried away by his success is to be inferred 
from his modest journal entry on that date: 
''Performed on debate in the joint exhibition of 
the Platonean and Philological societies: took 
dinner at Mrs. Burton's: started home on 
foot".i» 

Harlan had now exhausted his slender re- 
sources, and although he had received urgent 
offers of assistance from two fellow-students, 
he returned home for the purpose of earning 
sufficient money to enable him to continue his 
studies. During the spring and early summer 
he was engaged in farm work, and from August 
to November he taught a district school. 
Meanwhile, he found time to meet with the 
''Park County Eiflemen", of which volunteer 
military company he was First Sergeant, and to 
make a number of "public addresses at temper- 
ance and sabbath-school meetings ' '. In July he 
acted as clerk of a township election, and cast 
his first vote. 

The event of this period which made the most 
lasting impression on the mind of the future 
statesman, however, was a speech delivered by 



22 JAMES HARLAN 

Henry Clay at Indianapolis, which Harlan and 
a number of his friends journeyed ''sixty or 
seventy miles, in a common farm-wagon" to 
hear. The speech was delivered in a large 
grove, and the young man secured a position 
where he had a full view of his hero. Here he 
remained throughout the two hours of the 
speech, ''transfixed to the spot .... 
earnestly looking at him and intently listening 
to every word he said, and involuntarily ap- 
proving the justice and wisdom of all his 
conclusions." So vividly was every detail of 
this speech pictured in his memory that more 
than forty years later he was able to write the 
following description: 

Mr. Clay 's personal appearance and bearing were of 
equal interest to me with his speech. He was driven 
up to the steps of the stand in an open barouche drawn 
by four splendid horses. He w^ore a suit of black cloth 
clothes, that, on his first arrival, were white with dust. 
This was before the construction of rail roads had 
been commenced in the West. And Mr. Clay, I was 
informed, had been driven in this vehicle, that morn- 
ing, from Richmond to Indianapolis, Ind., a distance 
of perhaps sixty miles ; meeting with a perfect ovation, 
by masses of people, every mile of the way. . . . 

His approach to his audience, when he commenced 
his speech, was as genial and cordial as the sunshine ; 
his movements were as simple as those of an unspoiled 
child, and as gentle as those of a cultured woman, and 
his elocution was only earnest and most delightful 



COLLEGE LIFE 23 

conversation, — and yet so clear, and harmonious, and 
distinct as to be easily heard, apparently, by every- 
body.2o 

Early in November, 1842, James Harlan re- 
turned to Greencastle and resumed his studies, 
joining with a number of his fellow-students in 
keeping ** bachelor hall". They rented **a 
small hotel, which happened at the time to be 
unoccupied, and apportioned out the rooms to 
small messes of from two to four students in 
each mess; each student furnishing his own 
room ; and, for a time, each mess supplying its 
own table". After a time they all joined in one 
mess ''and hired a family" to cook and serve 
the meals, one of the students being detailed 
each week to act as steward. By this arrange- 
ment the cost of living was reduced to less than 
one dollar a week for each member of the group. 

Sunday now became the busiest day in the 
week for Harlan. He was an active member of 
a missionary society, which, dividing itself into 
small groups, organized and instructed Sabbath 
schools in rural neighborhoods around Green- 
castle. Early every Sunday, with two col- 
leagues, he walked three miles to a country 
schoolhouse and taught a class, returning to 
town in time for church services at eleven 
o 'clock. In the afternoon came a lecture in the 
college chapel, followed by another church ser- 
vice in the evening. ''The faithful fulfillment 



24 JAMES HARLAN 

of these engagements, with a reasonable amount 
of Sabbath-day reading," and the writing of 
synopses of sermons and lectures filled every 
hour of a long day. 

The college year of 1842-1843 passed in much 
the same manner as the preceding year. A 
number of incidents reveal the developing 
ability of James Harlan and his growing in- 
fluence in the student body. As the spokesman 
of a movement to erect a monument in memory 
of a deceased student he succeeded in over- 
coming and disarming the opposition of a 
faction led by Mark Smith, whose father was at 
that time a United States Senator from Indiana. 
He was again chosen by the Platonean Literary 
Society, of which he was President during a 
portion of the year, as one of its debaters in 
the annual contest. He successfully defended 
a member brought to trial for alleged offenses 
against the society's laws; and caused the de- 
feat of a motion to confer honor upon a member 
who had been publicly dismissed from the 
university for violating certain rules of the in- 
stitution.-^ 

During the spring vacation the young orator 
took an active interest in politics. He wrote a 
number of articles for a Rockville newspaper, 
"took part in several political debates in the 
county, attended the county Whig convention, 
and was appointed a delegate to the Whig Con- 



COLLEGE LIFE . 25 

gressional convention". In fact, he became so 
much interested in politics that when, several 
months later, he received a letter from a friend 
urging him to take the stump in Park County 
and seek political office, he found the temptation 
strong. Nevertheless, he recorded in his jour- 
nal: '^I take part sometimes in political dis- 
cussions,— but I have no desire for official 
stations. I think I will be a farmer. "22 

Scarcely had Harlan reached his home in 
September, 1843, at the end of the college year, 
when he received a call from George C. Snow, 
an intimate friend and the prospective husband 
of his sister Lydia. Snow brought the news 
that he had made arrangements for James and 
himself to become members of a party which 
would start on the following Monday for the 
much talked of Territory of Iowa. Although 
there was little time for preparation the plan 
appealed strongly to the young man, who was 
curious to see the ''new country" west of the 
Mississippi, and accordingly he accepted the 
invitation. 

The party set out on their western journey 
on September 18, 1843, in a '' two-horse wagon" 
which doubtless had the customary canvas 
cover, and which was well stored with blankets 
and necessary supplies. During the first day 
they ''ferried across the Wabash river; passed 
through the town of Newport, .... and 



26 JAMES HARLAN 

a few miles beyond camped for the night". 
Sunrise the following morning found them once 
more on their westward way, and soon they 
emerged from the forest upon the ''Grande 
Prairie". 

"Although I had been familiar with the ap- 
pearance of such prairies as were to be found 
in the vicinity of the Wabash river .... 
I had never before seen any like those upon 
which we were now entering", wrote Harlan 
when recalling his astonishment at the first 
sight of this great stretch of open country. 
' ' Their immensity was over-whelming. In fact 
the whole country appeared to be only one 
boundless expanse, a vast ocean covered with 
grass mingled with native flowers, .... 
here and there relieved by groves, and spurs 
and tongues of timber reaching out from the 
main bordering forests, like islands and capes 
and promontories in and around the great 
sea. "2^ 

The party proceeded across this "wonderful 
country", through Urbana, Bloomington, Pe- 
oria, Knoxville, and Monmouth, to Burlington 
in the Territory of Iowa. The team and wagon 
and the four men were transported across the 
broad Mississippi for the modest sum of one 
dollar. Lodgings were secured in the "Union 
Hotel" at Burlington, and the young Hoosiers 
proceeded to make a survey of the town, "which 



COLLEGE LIFE 27 

had acquired considerable notoriety; having 
been the capital of the Territory of Wisconsin, 
which at that time included Iowa; and after 
Wisconsin became a State, remained the 
metropolis of the new Territory. It was not a 
large city, — containing probably not more than 
two thousand inhabitants, residing in primitive 
looking dwellings clustered together between 
two rugged hills at the mouth of a small stream 
called 'Hawk-Eye Creek'. The inhabitants, 
however, appeared to be alert, intelligent, enter- 
prising, and courteous, — especially so to 'new- 
comers'."^^ 

Shortly after arriving in Burlington Harlan 
and Snow parted from their fellow-travelers, 
who were bent upon proceeding farther into the 
interior. The two young men watched their 
comrades drive away ''over the hills" to the 
westward, and then with "an indescribable 
feeling of loneliness" returned to the hotel. 
The following morning they were greeted with 
stories of mob violence and an attempted 
murder during the night. "But, being Amer- 
icans born and brought up on the western 
frontier," they readily "understood that these 
unpleasant happenings were merely as the froth 
on the crest of the incoming wave of population, 
which would soon disappear without affecting 
the character of the depths below ; and that the 
great body of the people here on the very verge 



28 JAMES HARLAN 

of civilization were on the average as reliable 
and desirable for neighbors and friends, — and 
as intelligent, enterprising, patriotic and trust- 
worthy as anywhere else in the whole coun- 
try. "^^ 

Leaving Burlington on the second day, the 
two companions set out on foot for Wapello, 
thirty or forty miles to the northward, stopping 
over night at a small village known as Yellow 
Springs. Here they were overtaken by the tri- 
weekly stage-coach from Burlington to Wapello, 
and in that jolty vehicle they continued the 
journey to their destination. Several days were 
spent at Wapello visiting with friends and 
making short excursions into the surrounding 
country. Eeturning to Burlington early in 
October they took passage down the Mississippi 
River on the steamboat ''Louis Oak". At the 
village of Montrose "passengers and cargo 
were transferred to open barges" or keel-boats. 
As these rude craft were propelled down the 
stream the travelers obtained an excellent view 
of Nauvoo, the city of the Mormons. "It was 
said to be only three years old, and to contain at 
this date twenty thousand inhabitants. "-'^ 

The next stop was at Keokuk on the Iowa side 
at the foot of the rapids, where Harlan and 
Snow remained for a day and night, securing 
lodging in the home of a "full fledged Mor- 
mon". "The town of Keokuk at this date was 



COLLEGE LIFE 29 

not attractive. The bluffs were precipitous, and 
approached so close to the river as to leave 
room only for a very narrow wagon road, lo- 
cated close up to the water's edge, and one 
somewhat long row of buildings on the other 
side of this drive-way, where they seemed to be 
engaged in a sort of life and death struggle 
with the rugged hills to secure room to stand 
on. This only business street was undulating, 
crooked, and unimproved in any way. The 
houses were small and primitive and only one 
story in height. One of them only was made of 
bricks ; a very few were frame, and the residue 
were constructed of logs. The resident part of 
the town was located on the bluffs, and was 
even less inviting in appearance than its busi- 
ness street. "^^ 

The steamboat ''Leander" conveyed the two 
wanderers from Keokuk to Hannibal, and 
thence they journeyed on foot and '4n a so- 
called 'stage coach' to the town of Paris", 
Missouri, which place became their head- 
quarters during the succeeding three weeks. 
Although slavery did not exist on a large scale 
in northeastern Missouri, the people were for 
the most part slaveholders in their sympathies, 
and so James Harlan had an excellent oppor- 
tunity to study the workings of the system 
while on the numerous trips which he and his 
companion made into the country around Paris. 



30 JAMES HARLAN 

He found the slaves well fed, clothed, and 
sheltered, and in the main well treated. But he 
noted ''at least two crowning evils so rooted in 
this system of servitude as to be without rem- 
edy'', namely, the inevitable tendency to de- 
pravity in the relations between the races, and 
the ''admitted necessity of keeping the slave 
population in ignorance". 

Late in October the young men departed 
from Paris and after five or six days found 
themselves at Clinton, a small village in the 
western part of Monroe County, Missouri, 
where a Methodist "Quarterly Meeting" was in 
progress. Learning that a teacher was wanted 
for the district school in the community, Harlan 
applied for the position. "After considerable 
negotiation with the 'Board of Trustees', com- 
posed of three of the neighboring farmers, 
consultation on their part with the principal 
patrons, .... followed by a thorough 
personal examination" by the School Inspectors 
of the Township "at the school house, in the 
presence of the leading citizens", he was elect- 
ed. His confidence in the wide-spread fame of 
his university received a rude shock, however, 
when a letter of recommendation signed by 
President Simpson, presented during the course 
of the examination, elicited no response save the 
question: "Who is Mr. Simpson?" 

The school term began on November 7, 1843, 



COLLEGE LIFE 31 

and for three months Harlan was busy teaching 
classes, conducting a literary and debating 
society, and giving instruction to an evening 
grammar class, his companion, George C. Snow, 
being one of his pupils. By the end of the term 
Harlan's fame as ''a teacher by lectures" had 
spread, and he received and accepted an offer 
to organize a ''Grammar School" in a neighbor- 
hood not far distant from Clinton. 

In the new community Harlan was much in 
demand in a social way and was often enter- 
tained over the week's end in the homes of the 
leading families who evidently looked upon him 
as especially eligible matrimonially. Nor was 
the young teacher unimpressionable. With 
pleasing frankness his journal chronicles the 
minutest details of his visits in the homes of his 
patrons, giving enthusiastic pen-pictures of 
several young ladies who strove to warm the 
heart of the exile. An exciting experience of 
being lost for several hours in a dense fog, with 
wolves howling all about him, while returning 
from one of these pleasant visits, led him to 
write in his journal : " As all nature in the form 
of fog, rain, wind, clouds, smoke and wolves 
conspire against it, perhaps I should not repeat 
my visits to the Henegars, notwithstanding the 
charms of the enchanting daughter ! ' ' 

The last day of school came and with it a 
crowd of visitors to attend the examination of 



32 JAMES HARLAN 

the pupils, which resulted to the evident satis- 
faction of the solicitous parents. Then, after 
several days occupied in attending a Whig 
County Convention, and after bidding a regret- 
ful farewell to friends and patrons, Harlan and 
Snow ''started on foot for Hannibal — the 
nearest steamboat landing on the Mississippi 
river". Although it was nearly the last of 
March the travelers encountered a severe bliz- 
zard when well on their way; but with faces 
turned homeward they resolutely trudged on 
through snow and mud, reaching Hannibal 
about noon of the second day. Here they took 
passage to St. Louis, and thence proceeded by 
boat up the Ohio Eiver, a trip which was 
enlivened by a race with a rival craft. At 
Evansville, Indiana, they left the river and, 
journeying partly by boat and partly overland, 
reached the Harlan home on April 6, 1844.^^ 

During the remainder of April and the early 
part of May, James assisted his father in 
putting in the spring crops. In the meantime, 
however, he was given ample opportunity to 
indulge his taste for political speech-making. 
One w^eek after his home-coming he attended a 
political meeting on the ''Rocky Fork" and 
"made a speech about an hour and a quarter 
long w^hich was listened to attentively, and 
rapturously applauded at the close." Six days 
later he "went to Rockville, by invitation, and 



COLLEGE LIFE 33 

delivered a speech to the Clay Club, which was 
well received". On May 10th he spoke at Rose- 
ville and was offered the Whig nomination as a 
candidate for a seat in the Indiana legislature 
from Park County, an honor which he ''felt a 
strong inclination to accept", but after reflec- 
tion ''acquired sufficient courage to decline ".^^ 

Shortly after this event he returned to Green- 
castle and resumed college work, without 
serious loss of position in his classes, notwith- 
standing his long absence. James Harlan, the 
upper-classman, found life intensely earnest. 
Behind in Latin, and deep in the mysteries of 
Greek construction, he yet took time for par- 
ticipation in forensic contests — the prominence 
of which in the life of western colleges in large 
measure explains the readiness of western 
statesmen in oratory. Political discussions, 
temperance addresses and miscellaneous public 
speeches became more frequent, and claimed 
much of the student's time. This was the year 
of the presidential campaign, and Harlan was 
ever ready to speak in support of the "Great 
Compromiser". During the summer term he 
received a flattering offer from President 
Simpson to become a collecting agent to secure 
funds for the college, but deemed it best to 
decline. 

A vacation in October was filled with hard 
work on the farm, the routine being relieved by 



34 JAMES HARLAN 

a political speech and a second visit to his birth- 
place in Illinois. Then came the senior year 
which passed rapidly, with few unusual events 
to disturb the even tenor of student life. On 
Wednesday, August 20, 1845, James Harlan was 
one of a class of eleven who received their 
diplomas and the degree of B. A. at Asbury 
University. He had been in actual attendance 
less than three years, but during the long 
periods of absence he "was not intellectually 
idle" and so was able to keep pace with his 
classmates. And it is interesting to note that 
the total cash expenditures of his entire college 
course — from June 1, 1841, to August 20, 1845 
— aggregated only two hundred and sixty-six 
dollars and seventy-two and three-fourths 
cents !^*^ 



IV 

Maeriage and Removal to Iowa 

College activities, however, did not occupy all 
of young Harlan's time at ''Old Asbury", 
especially during the last year. The social life 
of the town of Greencastle evidently had strong 
attractions for him, for in his diary were re- 
corded the names of fifteen or twenty young 
ladies upon whom he ''occasionally made a 
friendly call" during the last year of his college 
course.21 But among these young ladies the one 
whose name appeared most frequently was Ann 
Eliza Peck,22 and before commencement day the 
two had come "to a definite understanding" as 
to what their "relations should become some 
time in the futuie." Thereafter Harlan heard 
Miss Peck recite "two or three times a week in 
Mental Science and other advanced studies not 
included in the course pursued at Mrs. Lara- 
bee's school for young ladies, which she had 
been attending." Later he "gave her an ex- 
amination on her preceding lessons in Upham's 
Mental Philosophy; and formed a very flatter- 
ing opinion of her capacity. ' ' 

35 



36 JAMES HARLAN 

On the evening of commencement day Harlan 
received another urgent offer of the position of 
traveling financial agent for the university, but 
again thought it best to decline. On the follow- 
ing day he returned home where he spent the 
greater part of the following two months, as- 
sisting his father with the work of the farm. 
Early in November, accompanied by his two 
sisters Lydia and Jane, and his friend and 
prospective brother-in-law George C. Snow, he 
drove to Greencastle; and there, on Sunday, 
November 9, 1845, James Harlan and Ann Eliza 
Peck were united in marriage. President Simp- 
son officiating at the ceremony.^^ 

A three months term as the teacher of a 
district school and a month on the Harlan home- 
stead making maple sugar occupied the time 
until about the middle of March, 1846. Then it 
was that the call came which brought James 
Harlan to Iowa, then about to emerge into 
Statehood. While visiting friends at Green- 
castle he was sought out by Eev. James L. 
Thompson, the duly authorized agent of Iowa 
City College, who came in search of a principal 
for the new school.^* After consulting with the 
faculty of Asbury University, and upon their 
recommendation, he offered the position to 
Harlan. The young man was not long in de- 
ciding to accept the offer. 

Preparations were immediately begun for the 



REMOVAL TO IOWA 37 

overland journey to the country beyond the 
Mississippi. Preferring to provide his own 
means of transportation, rather than undertake 
the tedious and expensive journey by mail 
coach, Harlan secured a good, strong horse and 
an open buggy "with body large enough to 
carry two persons and a trunk, with light hand 
baggage, and the usual wraps to guard against 
cold stormy weather." Thus equipped, the 
young couple bade farewell to their Indiana 
friends, and on March 14, 1846, started for their 
new home in Iowa, accompanied by ''Father" 
Thompson and a young man from Covington, 
Indiana, named Richard Poore. After an un- 
eventful journey of twelve days the party 
reached Iowa City on March 25th, and found 
hospitality that night in the home of Dr. Jesse 
Bowen.^^ For several weeks thereafter the 
Harlans lived in the home of John M. Coleman, 
who as Territorial Agent for several years had 
been largely instrumental in raising funds for 
the erection of the capitol building. A small 
house adjoining the building used by the college 
was then secured and the couple began house- 
keeping.^^ 

Iowa City College, the principalship of which 
James Harlan now assumed, was incorporated 
by an act of the Territorial legislature approved 
on February 15, 1843. Although the movement 
for establishing the college had been inaugu- 



38 JAMES HARLAN 

rated by the Methodist Episcopal Church and 
the act of incorporation declared that it should 
be under the patronage of that denomination, it 
was also stipulated that the college should be 
"founded and maintained forever, upon a plan 
the most suitable for the benefit of the youth of 
every class of citizens, and of every religious 
denomination, who shall be freely admitted to 
equal advantages and privileges of education". 
The Trustees were named in the act, their pow- 
ers and duties were defined, and the north half 
of block five was donated to the college on the 
condition that a building or buildings should be 
erected upon it within a specified time.^"^ 

The Trustees "were all duly sworn in pur- 
suance to the Charter, by Fernando H. Lee, a 
Justice of the Peace in and for Johnson county" 
on April 3, 1843. They then proceeded to 
organize, and James L. Thompson and Anson 
Hart were chosen President and Secretary of 
the Board respectively. Committees were ap- 
pointed to draft by-laws for the government of 
the Board, to secure suitable rooms for college 
purposes, and to secure the services of com- 
petent teachers. From this time, however, 
until the coming of James Harlan very little 
seems to have been accomplished.^^ 

"Within a few days after our arrival I was 
presented to the Board of Trustees of this in- 
fant college, and was unanimously elected 



REMOVAL TO IOWA 39 

Professor of Languages, and Principal of the 
Institution", wrote Harlan in the story of his 
life. He found that the Trustees had already 
engaged Mrs. Anson Hart as Principal of the 
Female Department, although he had supposed 
that he should have complete freedom in the 
choice of his subordinates. Nevertheless, he 
proceeded to organize, or rather to reorganize, 
the school, ''forming the boys and girls into 
classes according to their respective state of 
advancement without reference to sex. ' ' When 
Mrs. Hart reported for duty he found her thor- 
oughly in sympathy with his ideas, and conse- 
quently a separate ''Female Department" was 
not maintained. The attendance was not large 
at first, but it gradually increased during the 
year, and the young educator soon became 
deeply interested in his work and strongly at- 
tached to his students.^^ 

The college year was divided into two terms 
of five months each, and each term consisted of 
two quarters of eleven weeks each. There were 
three departments, an infant department, a pre- 
paratory department and a collegiate depart- 
ment ; and a course of study was offered which 
was quite comprehensive for a frontier school. 
Since it was necessary that the school should be 
largely self-supporting, the rates of tuition were 
high, ranging from two dollars to six dollars 
per quarter for each subject or group of sub- 



40 JAMES HARLAN 

jects. The government of the school was 
declared to be ^'mild, parental and firm", and 
it was announced that board could be secured 
"in respectable and pious families, at from 
$1.00 to $1.75 per week."^*^ 

Besides attending to the duties of his prin- 
cipalship James Harlan took an active part in 
the church and social life of the capital city, and 
made many friends among the citizens and 
members of the legislature. Frequently he was 
called upon to address public gatherings on 
social, religious, and educational topics. In 
fact he became so popular as a public speaker 
that the demands upon his time soon exceeded 
the limit of his ability to respond.^^ The ac- 
quaintances and experience thus gained stood 
him in good stead in subsequent political cam- 
paigns. The event of this period, however, 
which was given the most space in Harlan's 
autobiographical account was the birth of his 
first child, Mary Eunice, which occurred on 
September 25, 1846.^2 



Candidate for State Superintendent 

Among the offices created by the Constitution 
under which Iowa was admitted into the Union 
in 1846 was the office of Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, which was to be filled by 
popular election.^ ^ Upon the General Assembly 
was imposed the duty of determining the time 
and manner of holding the election, and the 
powers, duties, and compensation of the Super- 
intendent. Accordingly, by an act approved on 
January 24, 1847, the legislature provided that 
a Superintendent and certain other school 
officers should be elected "at the next annual 
township election",** the date of which was by 
another act set for the first Monday in April, 
1847. The importance of the office in the eyes 
of the legislators is evidenced by the fact that it 
carried with it a salary of twelve hundred dol- 
lars, while the Governor of the State received 
only one thousand dollars. 

The Democrats were the dominant party in 
Iowa at this time. The Constitution was dis- 
tinctly an instrument of their making, and at 

41 



42 JAMES HARLAN 

the first election of State officers, in the fall of 
1846, they elected their entire ticket and cap- 
tured the upper house in the General Assembly. 
Consequently, if the election of a Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction should be determined 
on partisan grounds, it seemed entirely likely 
that a Democrat would secure the office. James 
Harlan, however, was not willing that partisan- 
ship should enter into the choice. He had come 
to Iowa to aid in the educational development of 
the Commonwealth, and naturally felt a deep 
interest in the selection of the first Superin- 
tendent. ** Taking careful note of the distribu- 
tion of high official honors among the leading 
members of the Democratic party", it became 
clear to him "that this position was regarded by 
them simply as a 'plum' to be awarded, like 
purely political offices, to one of themselves as 
a reward for partisan services; and that Hon. 
Charles Mason, of Burlington, the Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court of the Territory", who 
would soon be out of office, "would be desig- 
nated as a candidate on the part of the 
democracy. "^^ 

Notwithstanding Judge Mason's high char- 
acter and many qualifications, Harlan did not 
favor him for the superintendency, believing 
that he would regard it as an office worthily 
won, rather than as a post of duty; and that 
he "would make it a mere ad interim affair, and 



CANDIDATE FOR SUPERINTENDENT 43 

a stepping stone subservient to his future 
political promotion. "■'^ Belie\ing that the best 
interests of the educational system of the State 
demanded the defeat of Mason if he should 
become a candidate, and at the same time real- 
izing that few men looking forward to a political 
career would be willing to make a race against 
an opponent so well known as the Judge, Harlan 
decided to enter the contest himself. And so, 
after consulting with friends and making in- 
quiries to assure himself that the field was still 
open, he announced his candidacy early in 
March, "independent of party or caucus", and 
placed announcement cards in both of the Iowa 
City newspapers.^^ 

This announcement precipitated a newspaper 
discussion and the Democratic organ at Iowa 
City was especially severe in its criticisms of 
Harlan. The candidate 's scholarship was called 
into question because in a note to the editor the 
word ''April" had been misspelled. He was 
charged with duplicity in announcing himself 
independent of party nomination, the editor 
declaring that this was merely a subterfuge to 
gain Democratic votes, and that Harlan had 
been nominated by a Whig junta. Morever, 
Harlan's short residence in Iowa was used as an 
argument against him. The Whig press, on the 
other hand, espoused Harlan's cause, vigor- 
ously defended him against his opponents, and 



44 JAMES HARLAN 

denied Mason's qualifications for the office.''^ 
Thus the contest for the superintendency be- 
came a party struggle, in spite of the fact that 
Harlan himself had abjured partisanship. 

Meanwhile Harlan was traveling over the 
State on horseback, addressing audiences on 
educational themes and becoming acquainted 
with the voters. An elaborate schedule of dates 
was arranged and published in the news- 
papers,^^ and on the last day of February, 
accompanied by his friend James L. Thompson, 
he set out from Iowa City on his arduous 
campaign, going first into the southern part of 
the State. The record of the events of the 
succeeding month which Mr. Harlan has left in 
his Autohio graphical Manuscript is typical of 
the experiences of the political circuit-rider in 
the early days.°*^ Hearty hospitality was the 
general rule everywhere, but a successful meet- 
ing at one point was often followed by a 
disappointingly small audience at the next. 
Frequently no announcement had been made of 
the candidate's coming, and a long, difficult 
journey was thus made of no avail. Bad roads 
were encountered everywhere and there were 
vexatious delays caused by floods or inclement 
weather. Sundays, far from being rest days, 
were devoted to lectures on education, temper- 
ance, or religious subjects. Fully half of the 
time he made two speeches a day, at points 



CANDIDATE FOR SUPERINTENDENT 45 

separated by many weary miles of muddy road. 
Campaigning in Iowa in 1847 was by no means 
a pleasure jaunt. 

The canvass, however, with all its seriousness 
of purpose and its hardships, was not without 
touches of humor. One afternoon while making 
all possible speed on the thirty-mile ride from 
Oskaloosa to Agency City, where he was sched- 
uled to speak in the evening, he was halted by 
repeated calls from the direction of a cabin by 
the side of the road. Reining his horse he be- 
held a man perched upon the topmost rail of the 
fence in front of the cabin. "Your name is 
Harlan, I suppose ? ' ' queried the settler. Upon 
receiving an affirmative answer he inquired if 
the rider was a candidate for Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. Harlan responded that he 
was, and that he was on his way to Agency City 
to make a speech. ' ' Well ' ', remarked his inter- 
locutor, ''you have a good long distance to ride, 
and not long to make it; so I suppose you are 
in a hurry, and I will not detain you. I expect 
to vote for you ; but I always like to see the man 
I am going to vote for. Good-bye ! ' ' With that 
he climbed down from the fence and Harlan 
rode on ''much amused and also gratified with 
the incident. "^^ 

Harlan returned to Iowa City on March 18th 
to deliver a speech which had been advertised 
for that afternoon. Here he learned for the 



46 JAMES HARLAN 

first time that Judge Charles Mason had 
definitely announced his candidacy in a public 
letter which had just reached the capital city. 
In this letter Mason stated that he had been 
presented as a candidate by ''the partiality of 
friends highly respectable, both in number and 
character", and that he had not sought the 
office, but that if elected he would discharge his 
duties to the best of his ability. At the same 
time he sought to cast reflections upon his 
opponent. The contest was not a political one, 
he declared, and political discussion would be 
out of place. "Nor do I know", he continued, 
"of any antagonism of opinion in relation to 
the manner in which the duties of this particular 
office should be discharged, which would justify 
an attempt to call the people from their ordi- 
nary avocations to listen to public discussions 
on electioneering topics. I have no peculiar 
schemes to propose — no objects, either per- 
sonal, professional, political, or sectarian, to 
accomplish. I have neither time, taste, nor 
capacity, for mere oratorical display; and to 
perambulate the State for the purpose of 
soliciting suffrages I shall never do w^hile I can 
find any more creditable employment."^- 

This sarcastic letter by Judge Mason stirred 
Harlan's fighting blood. His belief that the 
Judge would deem it an act of condescension 
on his part to accept the superintendency was 



CANDIDATE FOR SUPERINTENDENT 47 

confirmed, and it was evident to him that Mason 
''expected this office to march voluntarily and 
unsolicited, and deliver itself into his hand!"^^ 
Mason's supporters, however, were alarmed at 
their leader's inactivity, and they did every- 
thing in their power to make the Iowa City 
meeting unpleasant for the opposing candidate. 
"Hence, from this time forward," says Mr. 
Harlan, *'I put into my addresses an element of 
personality. I did not call in question my op- 
ponent's purity of character, his great natural 
gifts, his wide range of learning, his trans- 
cendent qualifications as a military engineer, as 
a lawyer and as a Judge. But I insisted that 
neither his education by the Government as a 
cadet at West Point, nor his experiences in the 
Engineer Corps of the Army, nor yet his long 
official service as the presiding judge of a Ter- 
ritorial Court, furnished reasonable grounds for 
confidence in his qualifications and fitness for 
the office of Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion".^^ 

Leaving Iowa City on the following day, 
March 19th, Harlan proceeded into the northern 
part of the State, speaking at Dubuque, An- 
drew, Dewitt, Davenport, Tipton, and various 
other points in that region. At Dubuque he was 
entertained by Thomas H. Benton, Jr., a 
nephew of "Old Bullion" and at that time a 
member of the State Senate. Little did these 



48 JAMES HARLAN 

two men guess that within a year they would be 
arrayed against each other in a contest for the 
same office which James Harlan was now 
seeking. 

Shortly before election day an incident oc- 
curred which illustrates the directness of 
Harlan's campaign methods. In glancing over 
the newspapers which had accumulated during 
his absence on the northern tour, he discovered 
an anonymous communication in the Burlington 
Hawk-Eye in which the writer urged the 
election of Judge Mason, chiefly on the ground 
that a knowledge of the law, and especially of 
the school laws of the State, was a prime quali- 
fication for the office of Superintendent. The 
tone of this anonymous letter led Harlan to 
suspect that it had been written by Rev. A. J. 
Huestis, the Principal of the Mount Pleasant 
Collegiate Institute. Huestis had informed 
Harlan several weeks earlier that he himself 
intended to be a candidate for Superintendent 
in spite of the fact that he and Judge Mason 
were members of the same political party. 

Convinced by the letter that there was a 
collusion between Huestis and Mason, Harlan 
immediately set out for Mt. Pleasant for the pur- 
pose of learning the true state of affairs. Ar- 
riving at his destination he found that a typical 
pioneer ''barn raising" had dra^vn to town a 
considerable number of the voters of Henry 



CANDIDATE FOR SUPERINTENDENT 49 

County. A meeting was arranged for that after- 
noon and it was soon noised about that some- 
thing ''crooked" was to be exposed. As a 
consequence, a large crowd gathered at the court 
house at one o'clock. Harlan plunged into his 
subject by reading the anonymous communica- 
tion, and then turning to Mr. Huestis, who was 
present, asked him to ' ' state w^hether he was or 
was not its author, and also, whether he had not 
Judge Mason's promise to be made his Clerk 
or Deputy in the event of his election." Mr. 
Huestis denied the charges, but in such an 
indefinite manner as to disappoint his loyal 
fellow-townsmen who confidently expected him 
to clear himself easily. Thereupon a stranger 
arose and produced a letter from Huestis to a 
Mr. Warren which conclusively proved the 
truth of Harlan 's allegations, and left no doubt 
regarding an agreement between Huestis and 
Mason to the effect that the former was to 
become deputy in case of the election of the 
latter.^ ^ 

Weary after a month of almost constant 
travel and speech-making which had carried 
him into nearly every organized county in the 
State, Harlan now returned to Iowa City to 
await the result of the election. "AVlien the 
election closed on the evening of the fifth of 
April, 1847," he writes, "I was strongly im- 
pressed with the belief that I had been elected, 



50 JAMES HARLAN 

although the contest had become largely polit- 
ical, and my political opponents were decidedly 
in the majority. "^^ The closeness of the con- 
test, the distance of some of the precincts, and 
the slowness of communication, however, made 
the result uncertain for several days. But the 
suspense was finally ended. When the returns 
were all in and counted, it was found that 
Harlan had been elected by a handsome ma- 
jority over his opponent. Judge Mason — much 
to the surprise of nearly everyone, except the 
successful candidate himself.^^ 



VI 

Election Contests 

James Harlan was a man doomed to bitter 
political contests and relentless partisan antag- 
onism throughout his entire public career, and 
his election as Superintendent of Public In- 
struction was the beginning. No sooner was the 
fact of his election established than the Demo- 
cratic leaders, smarting under the defeat of 
their candidate, began to look about for a 
pretext to prevent Harlan from entering upon 
the duties of the office. A pretext soon pre- 
sented itself in the shape of what seemed to be 
a technical defect in the publication of the 
statute authorizing the election. 

The State Constitution provided that no law 
of a general nature should take effect until it 
had been published and circulated in the various 
counties of the State by the proper authority. 
But if the General Assembly should deem that 
any act was of immediate importance they 
might provide that it should take effect upon 
publication in newspapers of the State.^^ The 
law under which the election of Superintendent 

51 



52 JAMES HARLAN 

and School Fund Commissioners was held, 
however, contained no provision for its publi- 
cation, but simply provided that these officers 
should be chosen at the next township election. 
The interpretation of this law by the legislators 
who enacted it, both Democrats and Whigs, by 
the Democratic Governor who approved it, by 
the Democratic Secretary of State who pro- 
mulgated it, and by the voters at the polls, was 
that the next annual township election meant 
the election which was to be held on the first 
Monday in April, 1847. 

In accordance with this interpretation the 
Democratic members of the legislature had 
nominated Judge Mason for the superintend- 
ency; the voters in all the organized counties 
had made nominations for School Fund Com- 
missioners; and the Secretary of State had 
caused the act to be published, not only in the 
Iowa City newspapers, but also on separate 
sheets, duly certified, which were distributed to 
every county in the State.^'' With this official 
authorization and general understanding the 
election had been held. And yet the election 
thus called and held was now pronounced il- 
legal and invalid ! 

The argument used by those who opposed 
James Harlan's right to the office to which he 
had been elected by a majority of the voters of 
the State, was that the law had not been pub- 



ELECTION CONTESTS 53 

lished in the manner required by the Consti- 
tution. They maintained that the Constitution 
contemplated only two methods of publishing 
the laws of the General Assembly, namely : in a 
volume containing all of the laws of the session, 
or by publication in the newspapers in the case 
of laws which the legislature deemed of imme- 
diate importance. Inasmuch, then, as the act 
calling for an election of a Superintendent and 
other school officers contained no provision for 
publication in the newspapers, it was argued 
that it could only become valid when it had been 
published in a volume with the other laws of 
the session. Consequently, no election could 
legally be held until in April, 1848, and the 
officers chosen on April 5, 1847, were not en- 
titled to their offices. *^'^ 

In the newspaper controversy which followed. 
The Iowa Standard, the Whig journal at Iowa 
City, came valiantly to Harlan's support. It 
was held that the Constitution did not require 
that the laws should all be printed and circu- 
lated in one volume before they could take 
effect. Indeed, the editor insisted that if the 
legislature chose to publish the laws from day 
to day on separate sheets and distribute them to 
the counties, there was nothing in the Consti- 
tution which made such a method of publication 
invalid. In the case of the law in question, it 
had been made as accessible to the voters of the 



54 JAMES HARLAN 

State as it would have been had it been dis- 
tributed in a volume of session laws, and conse- 
quently the spirit of the Constitution had been 
fully complied with. The denial of the validity 
of the election by the Democrats on the basis of 
a mere technicality was denounced as a subter- 
fuge to cover disappointed and resentful 
partisanship, and it was asserted that if Judge 
Mason had been elected the point would never 
have been raised. Furthermore, it was pointed 
out that Judge Mason evidently had no doubt of 
the legality of the election, since he had resigned 
his position as Chief Justice in order that he 
might be free to accept the superintendency 
when elected, as he fully expected to be.^^ 

While this newspaper discussion was in 
progress James Harlan was meeting with diffi- 
culties in his efforts to discharge the duties of 
the office to which, according to all principles of 
reason and justice, he was fairly entitled. 
When he applied to Elisha Cutler, the Secretary 
of State, for a certificate of election, he was 
refused by that official, *'the pretext of his 
refusal being that as, in his opinion the election 
was void, it was the same in effect as if no 
election had occurred, and that there was no law 
specifically requiring the Secretary of State to 
issue certificates of elections in lowa."^^ 
Harlan, however, did secure a certified abstract 
of the returns of the election, and this he pre- 



ELECTION CONTESTS 55 

sented to the Governor, together with his 
official bond which the Governor approved. 
Then after consulting with friends and securing 
legal advice he filed his bond, took the oath of 
office, and forthwith assumed the duties and 
responsibilities of the superintendency. The 
School Fund Commissioners and the other local 
school officers chosen at the April election also 
proceeded to qualify and act.^^ But their trou- 
bles had only begun. 

Shortly after filing his bond Harlan was 
served with a writ of quo warranto, at the 
instance of the District Prosecuting Attorney, 
George S. Hampton, commanding him to ap- 
pear before the district court and show by what 
authority he was holding the office of Superin- 
tendent. Harlan, appearing by counsel, asked 
and obtained reasonable time in which to make 
a proper response to the writ. Thus the hearing 
was deferred and Harlan was left in possession 
of the office.^^ But at about the same time, 
clearly by arrangement, a suit was brought in 
the district court of Johnson County, against 
one Asa Calkin who had been elected in April 
as a school director of Iowa City. Calkin was a 
Democrat **and of a caliber sometimes de- 
scribed as 'a ward politician' ready to do what- 
ever his party leaders required of him." 
Consequently, he made no defense. The Demo- 
cratic Judge of the district court decided 



56 JAMES HARLAN 

adversely to the defendant, who then went 
through the form of appealing to the Supreme 
Court, also strongly Democratic in its preju- 
dices, where the decision of the lower court was 
confirmed.^^ The result in this case, although 
purely a sham, was to embolden Harlan's op- 
ponents and to make it increasingly difficult for 
him to secure the official recognition necessary 
for a proper performance of his functions. 

Among the many duties of the Superintendent 
of Public Instruction was the supervision of the 
selection of school lands, and the management 
of the school funds. Congress had granted the 
State for school purposes the sixteenth section 
of land in each township or an equal amount 
''as contiguous as may be", together with five 
hundred thousand acres of land within the State 
chosen in such manner as the legislature might 
direct.*^*^ Upon the School Fund Commission- 
ers, under the direction of the Superintendent, 
devolved the task of selecting and selling the 
lands thus granted. Furthermore, Congress 
had reserved five per cent of the net proceeds of 
the sale of public lands within Iowa to be used 
by the State for school purposes, and it was the 
duty of the Superintendent to have charge of the 
funds derived in this manner.^'" 

James Harlan found these tasks very ardu- 
ous. He had no precedents to guide him in the 
work, and it was only after extended cor- 



ELECTION CONTESTS 57 

respondence with the General Land Office at 
Washington that he received definite instruc- 
tions as to the method to be pursued in selecting 
and selling the school lands. The hostility of 
the Registers of the land offices in Iowa, who 
were Democrats and accepted their party's 
view of the situation, was also a constant source 
of hindrance, since all selections of land had to 
be reported to them and placed on record in 
their offices. And Harlan was also greatly 
hampered by the fact that in several counties 
the School Fund Commissioners and other local 
school officers, either honestly or for partisan 
reasons considering their election invalid, made 
no effort whatever to perform the duties of 
their offices. 

Notwithstanding these difficulties, Superin- 
tendent Harlan worked diligently and succeeded 
in accomplishing much that was of fundamental 
importance. He published an open letter to the 
local school officers, urging them to proceed 
with their duties and defending the validity of 
their election.*'^ He also issued instructions to 
the School Fund Commissioners, telling them 
how to make the selections of school lands. '^'^ 
The result was that in many counties in the 
State the school system was put into successful 
operation, and a substantial beginning was 
made in the choice and sale of school lands. 
The Superintendent also traveled quite exten- 



58 JAMES HARLAN 

sively over the State, investigating the condi- 
tions and needs of schools, consulting with and 
giving advice to local school officers, and de- 
livering public addresses on educational topics. 
Moreover, as President of the Board of Trus- 
tees of the newly established State University 
of Iowa, he took a prominent part in the early 
deliberations of that body. 

The legislature met in extra session on 
January 3, 1848, and on January 11th the House 
of Representatives passed a resolution calling 
upon the Superintendent for a detailed report, 
together with all official correspondence con- 
nected with his office."^ In his report, made in 
pursuance of this resolution, Mr. Harlan care- 
fully stated the details of his election and his 
subsequent difficulties. He reported the amount 
of school lands selected and sold, the amount 
and disposal of the school funds, and the num- 
ber of schools and pupils. The report closed 
with a defense of his right to hold the office of 
Superintendent, and with recommendations for 
modifications in the school laws; while an ap- 
pendix contained the correspondence called for 
by the resolution of the House.^^ 

The House of Representatives received and 
printed the Superintendent's report, legalized 
the sale of school lands and the investment of 
the proceeds under his supervision, and appro- 
priated the necessary money to pay his salary 



ELECTION CONTESTS 59 

for the current yearJ^ But the question of the 
legality of Harlan's election was left un- 
touched, except that in the legalizing act there 
was the inference that the election was consid- 
ered invalid. In view of this attitude of the 
legislature, seconded by the Governor in his 
special session message,'^^ it soon became ap- 
parent that a new election would be held in 
April, 1848. 

In due time, as was expected, a Democratic 
State Convention was held at Iowa City for the 
purpose of nominating a candidate for Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, and Thomas Hart 
Benton, Jr., of Dubuque, received the nomina- 
tion. This action on the part of the Democrats, 
together wdth the nearness of the date for the 
new election, compelled Harlan to decide at 
once whether he would again be a candidate for 
the position to which he and his friends believed 
he had been legally elected, or rest his case upon 
the decision of the court in the suit which was 
still pending. His friends seemed about equally 
divided upon the question. But while he had no 
doubt as to his right to hold the office, Harlan 
felt 'Hhat no one could foresee to what extent 
even conscientious judges might be warped in 
their opinions on a purely legal question by 
their relations to a political party on whose 
good opinion they must depend for a continua- 
tion of honors and emoluments." Therefore, 



60 JAMES HARLAN 

after mature reflection he decided "to make the 
race" again, deeming it safer "to trust the 
people in their primary capacity at the polls, 
than the judges of the Iowa courts as then con- 
stituted".'^^ Moreover, he was desirous of end- 
ing the controversy because of its demoralizing 
effect upon the school system. 

The campaign which ensued was even more 
strenuous than the campaign which preceded 
Harlan's election in 1847. The two candidates 
agreed to stump the State together and for that 
purpose arranged and published a schedule of 
dates covering each week day from March 6 to 
April 1. The customary method of joint debate 
was followed, the speakers alternating in 
speeches not more than an hour in length, fol- 
lowing which each speaker might have a half- 
hour for rebuttal if he chose, but with the 
understanding that the last speaker should not 
introduce any new material. Thus the two men 
traveled from one end of the State to the other 
in a friendly campaign, sharing in common its 
hardships and its hospitalities. Late in life 
James Harlan wrote a detailed account of this 
canvass which presents a vivid picture of cam- 
paign methods in pioneer lowa.'^^ 

The election was held on April 3, 1848, and as 
the returns came in it was apparent that James 
Harlan was again the choice of the people by a 
small majority. Days and weeks passed and 



ELECTION CONTESTS 61 

still the result was left in uncertainty. Returns 
from two or three Democratic counties were so 
long withheld that the Secretary of State, 
Elisha Cutler, Jr., was obliged to visit the 
counties in person. Upon his return he notified 
Harlan that May 12tli had been set as the date 
when the board of canvassers would canvass the 
returns, and that the candidates might be pres- 
ent at that time if they chose. But in the mean- 
time Mr. Harlan and his friends had "become 
convinced that the Secretary of State, backed 
by the leaders of the democratic party in Iowa, 
had determined to so classify and count the 
returns of the election from the several counties 
as to secure the result they wished. "^^ It was 
discovered that the two or three Democratic 
counties which were supposed to have been de- 
linquent were not delinquent at all, but that the 
returns had been received by the Secretary of 
State and illegally opened by him. Upon find- 
ing that the Democratic candidate was defeated, 
he "withheld from the files the returns from 
these special counties, carried them back and 
had other returns made out and substituted, so 
as to change the result."" 

The official count, as announced by the board 
of canvassers on May 12th, gave Thomas H. 
Benton, Jr. the victory by a majority of one 
thousand two hundred and fifteen votes over 
James Harlan. But the method by which this 



62 JAMES HARLAN 

result was accomplished marks one of the most 
disgraceful instances of extreme partisanship 
to be found in Iowa history. The board of can- 
vassers deliberately diverted from Harlan 
twelve hundred ballots in which the name 
Harlan had been misspelled in various ways, 
declaring that each separate spelling must be 
regarded as a different man. With mock con- 
sistency they also denied Thomas H. Benton, 
Jr. two votes which had been cast for T. H. 
Benton, Jr. but they considered Thomas H. 
Benton and Thomas H. Benton, Jr. as the same 
person.'^^ Furthermore, an examination of the 
poll-books in the hands of the township clerks 
in Jackson County revealed the fact that Harlan 
had received eight more votes than were cred- 
ited to him in the official returns. And in 
Marion County there were returns from two 
precincts which had no existence, but which 
gave Benton a majority of eighteen votes."^^ An 
impartial court, with all of these facts in mind, 
would necessarily have given Harlan a majority 
of nine. But the board of canvassers, all of 
whom were zealous Democrats, refused to enter- 
tain any question as to the correctness of the 
figures and Mr. Benton was officially declared 
elected. 

The injustice of his defeat was deeply felt by 
Mr. Harlan. His intercourse with Mr. Benton 
had led him to suppose that when the facts were 



ELECTION CONTESTS 63 

known he would decline the office. But Benton 
soon arrived in Iowa City prepared to assume 
his duties. Thereupon Harlan wrote him a long 
letter stating the facts and the legal aspects of 
the case. Benton, however, responded in a curt 
note stating that it was not his place to go be- 
hind the returns.**^ For a time Harlan appar- 
ently considered holding the superintendency 
until forcibly expelled, and he stated his inten- 
tions to that effect in a public letter.^ ^ But 
later, when the court had decided against his 
right to hold office under the first election,^^ he 
realized the futility of further contest, and re- 
linquished the office to his adversary. 

Later in life, when James Harlan reviewed 
the events which marked the beginning of his 
long public career, he declared that as a ques- 
tion of ethics he still believed that he had been 
wrongfully deprived of the superintendency, 
but that "the influences adverse to a correct 
solution of a question of ethics" were in this 
case very potential. "Under the pressure of 
these conditions," wrote Harlan, "I would not 
now expect anyone entrenched behind an official 
count in his favor backed up by a dominant 
political party in full control of all the depart- 
ments of the State Government .... to 
do what then seemed to be so natural and so 
obviously his duty."^^ 



VII 

Lawyer Surveyor and College President 

The close of the controversy over the superin- 
tendency found James Harlan financially in 
somewhat straitened circumstances. The ex- 
penses of the two campaigns had borne heavily 
upon him, and he had been compelled to borrow 
money from his friends. Consequently he was 
confronted with the immediate necessity of 
choosing some means of livelihood, and he de- 
cided to take up the study of law with a view to 
making it his life profession. Feeling the need 
of rest, however, he drove across country with 
his family and spent several weeks visiting 
relatives and friends in Indiana. He also made 
a trip to Cincinnati, where he secured a stock of 
books and stationery for a drug-store which he 
had purchased in Iowa City, planning to earn a 
living in this manner while studying law. 

Returning to Iowa City in the summer of 
1848, Harlan purchased a modest home^^ and 
settled down to the life of a merchant, devoting 
all of his spare time to reading law. At the. 
same time he took an active part in the life of 

64 



LAWYER AND COLLEGE PRESIDENT 65 

the community. His ability as a public speaker 
was well knowm and he was often called upon to 
make religious and temperance addresses. The 
lynching of a burglar at Iowa City drew from 
him a long and able argument against resort to 
lynch law w^hich appeared in a local newspaper 
signed *'Civis".^^ A commission found among 
his papers indicates that he served as District 
Deputy Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Iowa 
Sons of Temperance for Johnson County.^® 
Early in 1850 he took part in a bitter contro- 
versy aroused by the alleged burning of some 
so-called Protestant Bibles at the instigation of 
a Catholic priest living in Iowa City.^'^ These 
and other occurrences indicate the broad range 
of Harlan's interests and activities w^hile he 
was tending store and reading law during the 
years from 1848 to 1850. 

In the spring of 1850 there occurred an event 
which proved that the former candidate for 
Superintendent was not forgotten by his polit- 
ical friends. On May 15th the Whig State 
Convention met at Iowa City and nominated 
James Harlan for Governor. ' ' This was totally 
unexpected by me", he declares. ''Such a 
thought had never entered my mind ; and I had 
never heard it mentioned as in contemplation 
by any one .... And the Convention ad- 
journed sine die without communicating with 
me on the subject, or appointing a committee for 



66 JAMES HARLAN 

that purpose; and, of course, without knowing 
whether or not the honor would be declined or 
accepted. My acceptance seemed to be assumed 
as a matter of course. "^^ 

Consequently, it was with surprise and cha- 
grin that about two weeks later the Whigs 
throughout the State read Harlan's letter of 
declination. He stated that in the absence of a 
seeming constitutional impediment he would 
not feel at liberty to decline to serve as the 
standard bearer of his party. But the Constitu- 
tion provided that no person should be eligible 
to the office of Governor who had not attained 
the age of thirty years at the time of his elec- 
tion. He would not be thirty years of age on 
the day of election, and although the returns 
would not be canvassed until after his thirtieth 
birthday, the question of his eligibility would 
doubtless be raised. *'And if our ticket should 
succeed, as we may reasonably expect, ' ' he con- 
tinued, **no one can doubt as to the course our 
political opponents would pursue, who is con- 
versant with the partizan judicial proceedings 
and the Cutlerization by means of which I have 
been recently ousted from an office to which I 
had been twice elected by the sovereign people 
of this State, under pretexts more flimsy in their 
character. ' "^^ 

This declination was felt to be a severe blow 
to the Whig party. Harlan's course was re- 



LAWYER AND COLLEGE PRESIDENT 67 

ceived with sullen silence by some, with out- 
spoken disapproval by others, and with regret 
by all. Whig lawyers were almost unanimous 
in the opinion that the age of the nominee would 
not have proved a constitutional disqualifica- 
tion. Whigs generally believed that with the 
eloquent young campaigner at the head of their 
ticket they might achieve a brilliant victory, and 
that the substitution of any other name would 
mean defeat. James L. Thompson, also of Iowa 
City, was selected as their second choice, and at 
the election in August the Democratic candi- 
date, Stephen Hempstead, was elected by a 
majority of over two thousand votes. 

Before the nomination of Thompson, how- 
ever, an effort was made by the "Locofocos" to 
stir up antagonism between the friends of Har- 
lan and those of the new nominee. The editors 
of the Capital Reporter, the Democratic organ 
at Iowa City, charged Harlan with ''duplicity, 
treachery and hypocrisy" in pretending friend- 
ship for Thompson and then working to defeat 
his nomination in the Whig convention. Mr. 
Harlan vigorously denied these charges in an 
article in the Whig newspaper ; and Mr. Thomp- 
son published a statement completely exoner- 
ating his good friend and sarcastically thanking 
the editors of the Capital Reporter for their 
unusual interest in his behalf.^" But the inci- 
dent is an illustration of the malevolent attacks 



68 JAMES HARLAN 

which James Harlan encountered throughout 
his entire public career. 

Although Harlan declined the nomination for 
Governor, he did not refrain from taking an 
active part in the campaign in support of 
Thompson. He made speeches and wrote news- 
paper articles whenever the opportunity of- 
fered, and especially endeavored to arouse the 
acti\dty of the Whigs by writing a circular 
letter which was widely distributed.^^ A 
Fourth of July oration at Iowa City also en- 
abled him to give expression to his political 
philosophy. Party spirit, national immorality, 
and human slavery were declared to be the three 
great dangers then threatening the welfare of 
the American people.^- The speaker's predic- 
tions concerning the dire consequences of 
slavery reveal the clear-sightedness of the man 
who later was such a staunch defender of free- 
dom on the floor of the United States Senate. 

In September, 1850, after a careful examina- 
tion, James Harlan was admitted and licensed 
''to practice as an Attorney and Counsellor at 
law and Solicitor in Chancery in any of the 
Courts of Record of this State. "^^ Profes- 
sional business at first came slowly, but he 
''endeavored to attend to such as did come 
promptly and efficiently, to be thoroughly pre- 
pared in every case which came to trial either 
before a justice of the peace or the district 



LAWYER AND COLLEGE PRESIDENT 69 

court", and thus in time he built up a substan- 
tial practice. But he found it impossible to 
withdraw from "participation in outside dis- 
cussions and enterprises which a wise regard 
for professional advancement would have dic- 
tated." He was a man of strong convictions, 
and as he writes, it was difficult for him "to live 
in a community and not become an active 
worker for whatever its welfare ' ' seemed to re- 
quire at his hands.*^^ 

Among the public discussions in which Harlan 
took part was one which occurred shortly after 
his admission to the bar. He engaged in a 
sharp newspaper controversy with Le Grand 
B}T.ngton over a proposed railroad connecting 
Iowa City with the Mississippi — a controversy 
begun by a card from Harlan correcting a pub- 
lished report that he and Judge William H. 
Henderson had declined to act as committeemen 
to devise ways and means for the proposed rail- 
road because they were not in sympathy with 
the project. The controversy developed into a 
discussion of Whig and Democratic attitudes 
toward internal improvements. Harlan held 
that the plan was simply impracticable without 
the aid of eastern capital and that such aid 
could not be enlisted at that time. The dis- 
putants evinced deep feeling and little respect 
for each other.^^ 

Scarcely had this war of words been brought 



70 JAMES HARLAN 

to a close when the question of a candidate for 
State Superintendent against Benton was con- 
sidered by the Whigs, and Harlan was again 
compelled to disappoint his friends by refusing 
to accept the nomination if tendered to him. He 
was well entered upon the practice of law and 
felt that he could not afford to abandon his 
profession for the canvass, much less for three 
years of service if elected. During the cam- 
paign, however, he wrote several editorials for 
the Iowa City Republican in support of the 
Whig nominee, William G. Woodward. He un- 
sparingly arraigned Benton for accepting an 
office with a commission which was beclouded 
by fraud, and censured him for negligent and 
unwise trusteeship of the school fund and for 
failure to perform his duty in other respects. 
The editorials were written in the direct-attack 
and explanation-demanding style of fifty years 
ago; and notwithstanding the author's dis- 
claimer they reveal touches of personal resent- 
ment. '*I had come to think of him [Benton] 
simply as a politician of the opposing party, 
whose official acts were proper subjects for fair 
criticism ' ', says Harlan.^*' In spite of all oppo- 
sition, however, Thomas H. Benton, Jr. was re- 
elected Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The year 1851 and the early part of 1852 
passed without any particular disturbance in 
Harlan's life as a fairly successful lawyer. In 



LAWYER AND COLLEGE PRESIDENT 71 

December, 1851, he participated in the celebra- 
tion of the completion of the Burlington and Mt. 
Pleasant Plank Road, which in those days be- 
fore the coming of the railroads seemed ''like 
the breaking of the blockade of a beleaguered 
city. ' '^"^ During this year, also, his law practice 
had become sufficiently remunerative to enable 
him, in partnership with a neighbor, William 
Crum, to purchase and improve a small tract of 
agricultural land on the west bank of the Iowa 
River near Iowa City.''^ In February, 1852, he 
was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court 
of Iowa, and his first case at that bar was the 
case of Talbot v. De Forest.^^ 

''I prepared an elaborate brief," Harlan 
wrote many years later when recalling this case, 
''which in my opinion at that time, was con- 
clusive in my client 's favor ; and my opinion of 
the astuteness of the Judges who decided it ad- 
versely to his interests, was not flattering to 
their learning and legal acumen! I preserved 
the original draft of this brief, and have just 
concluded its perusal. And, although I find it 
creditable in the manifestation of both research 
and logic, I am now amazed that I should have 
failed to perceive the real legal questions in- 
volved. I still think, however, that my client's 
contention was just, and that Blackstone's aver- 
ment that 'Wherever there is a right, there is a 
remedy', if true in theory, was not practicable 
in this case."^^° 



72 JAMES HARLAN 

In September, 1852, James Harlan entered 
upon an undertaking which was seemingly in- 
consistent with the practice of law. A year 
before, under the spur of necessity and prompt- 
ed by his natural love for out-door life, he had 
applied to George B. Sargent, the Surveyor 
General for Wisconsin and Iowa, for the posi- 
tion of Deputy Surveyor, and the appointment 
had been delayed. Harlan had learned the ele- 
ments of surveying early in life under the 
instruction of the Kentucky school-master, 
Jeremiah Terry, but he was frank to admit that 
it was as much political influence as his ability 
as a surveyor which gained him the appoint- 
ment. He was assigned to a field on the head- 
waters of the Raccoon River in what is now 
Carroll County, a region ''many miles beyond 
the most advanced frontier settlement", and his 
task was the division of townships into sections. 

Although the season was already well ad- 
vanced when the appointment was made, Harlan 
realized ''that the beautiful autumnal weather 
in Iowa some years extended through the month 
of December", and hence he did not feel justi- 
fied in asking for an extension in the time of his 
contract. Consequently he immediately organ- 
ized a party of men and purchased horses, a 
camp outfit, and the supplies necessary for 
carrying on the work. But finding it impossible 
to leave Iowa City at once himself, he sent the 



LAWYER AND COLLEGE PRESIDENT 73 

party out under the direction of Stephen H. 
Henderson. For several days the men pursued 
"their tedious journey, across trackless prai- 
ries, through groves of roadless timber lands, 
and across unbridged streams." They finally 
succeeded in reaching their destination and be- 
gan work, but after surveying one township 
they were driven in by a severe snow storm. 
The camp equipment and provisions were left in 
charge of a frontier settler and the party turned 
their faces homeward, reaching Iowa City late 
in November. Operations were necessarily sus- 
pended until the following spring, thereby 
entailing a severe financial loss upon Harlan, 
because his compensation for the work accom- 
plished was not sufficient to pay the wages of 
the men.^*^^ 

Meanwhile the presidential campaign of 1852 
was being waged between the Whigs, under the 
leadership of Winfield Scott and William A. 
Graham, and the Democrats, with Franklin 
Pierce and William R. King at their head. The 
Whigs in Iowa remembering the eloquence of 
the young Hoosier made frequent calls upon 
him for speeches during the last weeks of the 
campaign. Harlan responded to the best of his 
ability and at various points throughout the 
State propounded the leading principles of the 
Whig platform, namely: a tariff for revenue 
with incidental protection to American indus- 



74 JAMES HARLAN 

tries, internal improvements at the expense of 
the National government, the re-charter of the 
National Bank, the restriction of the Presi- 
dent's veto power, non-interference with sla- 
very within the States, and the distribution of 
the proceeds of the sale of public lands among 
the States.i«2 

It was not until April, 1853, that the inter- 
rupted surveying work was resumed. Harlan 
employed the requisite number of men, includ- 
ing an assistant deputy surveyor, a compass 
man, two chainmen, one flag-man, and a team- 
ster, hunter and general substitute. A contract 
was entered into by which Harlan agreed to pay 
each of these men fifteen dollars a month, while 
they in return promised to remain in Harlan's 
employ until the task to which he was assigned 
was completed. With this understanding the 
party left Iowa City early in April and on the 
sixteenth day of the month began work at the 
southeast corner of what is now Jackson Town- 
ship in Calhoun County. One month of ener- 
getic work was sufficient to complete the survey 
of the five townships allotted to Harlan, and 
the party returned once more to their homes. 
* ' The incidents of this episode in my life history 
were mostly agreeable," writes Harlan, ''and 
its experiences were useful ; but not pecuniarily 
remunerative. ' ' ^^^ 

Shortly after his return to Iowa City Mr. 



LAWYER AND COLLEGE PRESIDENT 75 

Harlan received a letter which resulted a few 
months later in a decided change in his plans. 
Several times during the past year he had re- 
ceived letters from the trustees of the Mt. 
Pleasant Collegiate Institute (now Iowa Wes- 
leyan University) urging him to accept the 
presidency or principalship of that institution. 
It was a small school of little better than pre- 
paratory grade, and at first the prospect was 
not sufficiently attractive to lure him from his 
growing law practice. But the instinct of the 
educator was strong within him and finally he 
promised to go to Mt. Pleasant and investigate 
the situation. 

After preparing the report of his surveying 
operations and making certain corrections in 
some of the lines which his men had run, he 
drove to Mt. Pleasant and met with the Board 
of Trustees. They informed him that they 
owned twenty acres of ground and a commodi- 
ous two-story brick building, that they were 
free from debt and had a school of fifty or sixty 
pupils, and that with proper management 
the number would rapidly increase. They 
proposed to give Harlan entire charge of the 
institution, with the understanding that he 
should employ all of his assistants, collect tui- 
tion and other funds, pay all expenses, and 
retain the remainder as his own compensation. 
The plan thus outlined was unsatisfactory to 



76 JAMES HARLAN 

Harlan, and lie frankly told the board that 
unless tliey would agree to do much more than 
they had proposed he could not accept the 
presidency. He had supposed that they intend- 
ed to establish a real college, capable of giving 
a full collegiate course. But as this would re- 
quire several buildings, adequate scientific 
apparatus, a good working library and a com- 
petent faculty, there must be some other source 
of income than merely the tuition of the stu- 
dents.i*^* 

The breadth of James Harlan's views was a 
revelation to the Board of Trustees, and some 
of the members were inclined to doubt the prac- 
ticability of putting his plan into operation. 
But in the end his ideas were adopted and he 
was engaged as president, with plenary powers 
to reorganize the college and place it upon a 
substantial basis. It was with no little inward 
struggle that he made what seemed to his 
friends a long step backward — from an as- 
sured position at the bar in the capital city to 
the presidency of a small educational institu- 
tion, in equipment and number of students 
scarcely more than a local academy, and in re- 
sources dependent upon tuition fees and dona- 
tions. 

Having made the decision, however, the new 
president with characteristic energy entered 
upon his work. Financial plans were discussed 



LAWYER AND COLLEGE PRESIDENT 77 

with Eev. L I. Stewart, the General Agent of 
the school, and a subscription paper was drawn 
up and circulated to raise money for the erec- 
tion of a new building. It was not an easy task 
to secure donations, for the Iowa of that day 
was a pioneer region and the population was for 
the most part made up of families who were 
struggling to earn homes. *'As I now remem- 
ber," writes Harlan, ''we received no one sub- 
scription which exceeded one hundred dollars; 
and very few of them were so large. Many of 
them did not exceed five dollars each, and a 
considerable number were smaller than that. 
But, on the principle that 'farthings make pen- 
nies, and pennies make pounds', we proceeded 
steadily from day to day with our work of 
soliciting, — chiefly by domiciliary visitation, 
making slow but steady progress, during the 
summer and autumn. "^^^ Early in the winter 
President Harlan removed his family to Mt. 
Pleasant. 

Under the impulse given by the reorganiza- 
tion the school took on new life and the number 
of students greatly increased. New instructors 
were chosen, new work was undertaken, and the 
school began to take on the actual work and 
dignity of a college.^^^ The limited number of 
instructors, however, made it necessary that the 
president should personally hear recitations 
every hour of the school day. He was not only 



78 JAMES HARLAN 

''President of the Faculty", but also "Profes- 
sor of Intellectual Philosophy and Moral 
Science". In due time a new three-story brick 
building was begun, and on the fourth day of 
July, 1854, the corner-stone was laid, the ad- 
dress being delivered by the President. Harlan 
became so much interested in his work that the 
suggestion of friends that he should be a candi- 
date for the Whig nomination for Governor 
received no serious consideration. 

The one drawback to President Harlan's 
perfect enjoyment of his work was his uncertain 
health, which had become a source of anxiety to 
his family and friends. Indoor life and the 
intense nervous strain under which he had 
labored much of the time since coming to Iowa 
had undermined his health to such an extent 
that he firmly believed he was in the early stages 
of consumption. Nevertheless, he determined 
to devote his best energies, during the short 
time which he felt remained for him, to the up- 
building of the college. And so, throughout the 
year 1854 he labored untiringly and with such 
success that he secured the active support of 
the Iowa Conference of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church to the exclusion of representatives from 
Northwestern University, who had been endeav- 
oring to secure aid among the Iowa churches. ^^" 



VIII 

First Election to the Senate 

The year during which James Harlan was 
laboring to place the Mt. Pleasant college on a 
firm foundatioji was a year of great significance 
in the annals of the Nation. A movement of 
protest against the encroachments of the slave 
power in the free territories of the West was 
sweeping over the country, threatening the very 
life of ''the divine institution" by denying it 
the right to grow. The issue became well de- 
fined in 1854, when an act passed Congress 
organizing the Territories of Kansas and 
Nebraska and declaring that the Missouri Com- 
promise was inoperative and void in the newly 
created Territories. This clause was a direct 
challenge to the opponents of slavery, and the 
bitterness of the discussion which followed was 
without parallel in the Nation 's history. In the 
Territories immediately affected the antago- 
nism between the friends of freedom and the 
champions of slavery passed from words to 
blows, bloodshed, and devastation. The eyes of 
the Nation were intently fixed on "bleeding 

79 



80 JAMES HARLAN 

Kansas" and the scarcely less unhappy Terri- 
tory of Nebraska. To the people of Iowa, 
especially, the struggle was of real and vital 
interest, and 1854 was a year of great political 
excitement. 

Here was an issue to command the young 
educator's profound attention and arouse his 
deepest sympathy. Born in an atmosphere of 
hostility to slavery, living among pioneers to 
whom freedom was a word big with meaning, 
and educated under the influence of Matthew 
Simpson, James Harlan's antagonism to sla- 
very, intensified by his brief, first-hand study of 
the system in Missouri, had become a part of 
the mental and moral fiber of his being. 

It was in the campaign of 1854 that the Ee- 
publican party in Iowa was born. A Governor 
and other State officers were to be chosen, and 
in the campaign the Democratic party, which 
had held almost unbroken sway since the organ- 
ization of the Territory in 1838, found itself 
confronted by a new and dangerous coalition. 
The anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats and the 
original Free-Soilers and Abolitionists had 
found common ground in their opposition to 
Douglas's measure, and thej^ banded themselves 
together under the name of the Anti-Kansas- 
Nebraska party, soon afterward adopting the 
name '^Republican". They chose as their can- 
didate for Governor James W. Grimes, a man in 



FIRST ELECTION TO SENATE 81 

the prime of life, brave to the point of audacity, 
imbued with the righteousness of his cause, and 
impressed with the necessity of stemming the 
pro-slavery tide which was sweeping over the 
Territories. He entered into the campaign with 
zeal and earnestness, and in an address to the 
people of Iowa declared that he would ''war and 
ivar continually against the abandonment to 
slavery of a single foot of soil now consecrated 
to freedom. "^^^ Grimes and the other Anti- 
Kansas-Nebraska candidates were carried into 
office by large majorities, and the legislature 
was also anti-Democratic. 

''This political revolution", wrote James 
Harlan many years later, "seemed to open the 
way for the transfer of many desirable official 
positions from the Democracy to the possession 
of members of this new organization, which the 
latter were not reluctant to acquire. The most 
coveted of these official 'plums' were the three 
Judgeships constituting the Supreme Court of 
the State, and one seat in the Senate of the 
United States, then occupied by Hon. Augustus 
C. Dodge, whose term of service would expire 
March 4, 1855. "^*^^ The names of several prom- 
inent Whigs were early mentioned for the sena- 
torship, and shortly before the meeting of the 
legislature James Harlan was surprised to find 
his own name mentioned in this connection. 
"I had not thought of the position as either 



82 JAMES HARLAN 

possible or desirable for me", writes Harlan. 
''My name had never, at any time, been coupled 
with it in my own thoughts, or as far as I then 
knew by anybody else, until a short time before 
the date fixed by law for the assembling of the 
members of the General Assembly .... 
when Colonel Laurin Dewey, of Mt. Pleasant, 
Iowa, in a private conversation with me, cas- 
ually remarked that I ought to be the next 
United States Senator from our State. I was 
both surprised and annoyed. It seemed to me 
an attempt at flattery too extravagant to be 
agreeable ".^^^ 

Dewey, however, assured Harlan of his ear- 
nestness, and within the next few days other 
friends, including Alvin Saunders and Samuel 
McFarland, approached him on the same sub- 
ject. Saunders and McFarland were both mem- 
bers of the legislature, the one in the Senate and 
the other in the House, and their suggestions 
had special significance. Saunders reviewed the 
situation thoroughly and in the end secured per- 
mission to present Harlan's name in case there 
seemed to be "a good chance" for him to win.^^^ 

To James Harlan the possibility that he 
would be the choice of the new party seemed 
very slight, in view of the large number of men 
who were mentioned for the place, many of 
whom he considered well qualified. In the first 
place, there was Fitz Henry Warren, a skillful 



FIRST ELECTION TO SENATE 83 

platform-maker and a leader in conventions. 
He had served as Chairman of the old Whig 
State Central Committee, as First Assistant 
Postmaster General under the Fillmore admin- 
istration, and as the Iowa member of the Whig 
national campaign committee in the preceding 
presidential campaign. Consequently he was 
regarded by Harlan as the '' logical candidate" 
of his party, and until the meeting of the legis- 
lature he was the man most frequently spoken 
of in connection with the senatorship. Besides 
Warren there were other veterans of many a 
political contest who seemed to the modest 
Harlan far more deserving of the honor than 
himself. Timothy Davis of Dubuque, Ebenezer 
and John P. Cook of Davenport, Jacob Butler 
and Stephen Whicher of Muscatine, Francis 
Springer of Wapello, James W. Grimes and his 
law partner, Henry W. Starr, of Burlington, 
James B. Howell of Keokuk, and George G. 
Wright of Keosauqua, all had their advocates 
and could all lay claim to reward at the hands 
of their party. 

The General Assembly convened at Iowa City 
on December 4, 1854, and the senatorial ques- 
tion became the main topic of discussion. 
About ten days later James Harlan was sur- 
prised to receive word that he had been nom- 
inated by the Anti-Nebraska members of the 
legislature as their candidate for United States 



84 JAMES HARLAN 

Senator. He was informed, liowever, that ''an 
election was not certain to follow, as was usual 
in such cases, for the reason that the Democratic 
members and a few bolting Whig members had 
apparently formed a combination to prevent it, 
with the hope of ultimately electing one of their 
own number; and that when so combined, they 
constituted a majority. "^^- In fact, on Decem- 
ber 13th, the day on which Harlan received the 
nomination, the two houses had met in joint 
convention for the purpose of electing a Sena- 
tor, and two ineffectual ballots were taken. In 
each case the votes were divided between a 
large number of candidates, Augustus Caesar 
Dodge, the Democratic nominee, receiving the 
highest number of votes each time.^^^ 

The scattered vote in the joint convention 
taught the Anti-Nebraska forces the need of 
organization and the selection of a definite can- 
didate. Consequently they held a caucus on the 
evening of December 13. A number of old-line 
Whigs refused to attend, because they feared 
the nomination of Fitz Henry Warren, who was 
particularly distasteful to them. The general 
expectation was that either Warren or Ebenezer 
Cook would be the choice of the caucus, with the 
chances in favor of Warren. But to the sur- 
prise of nearly everyone, on the seventh ballot 
James Harlan, whose name had scarcely been 
mentioned, was nominated by a majority of 



FIRST ELECTION TO SENATE 85 

thirteen votes over Fitz Henry Warren.^^^ It 
is pleasant to note that although sorely dis- 
appointed at the defeat of their favorite the 
Warren men, at the suggestion of their leader, 
came loyally to Harlan's support during the 
remainder of the contest. It was the opinion of 
many people, however, that Harlan would not 
be any more acceptable to the bolting Whigs 
than Warren,ii5 and succeeding events proved 
this opinion well grounded. 

The legislature met again in joint session on 
the morning of December 14, and in spite of the 
fact that both parties had held caucuses on the 
night before, five men were named for Senator, 
namely: James Harlan, Augustus Caesar 
Dodge, Edward Johnstone, Ebenezer Cook, and 
Joseph H. D. Street. But before a ballot could 
be taken a few disgruntled Whigs led by Milton 
D. Browning, who seems to have had his own 
aspirations for the senatorship, suggested the 
propriety of questioning the candidates as to 
their views on the great topics of the day. One 
member stated that Harlan was in favor of 
amending the fugitive slave law, while another 
declared that he was a strong abolitionist and 
was opposed to the Compromise of 1850.11*^ 
After a rambling discussion, the object of which 
was clearly to cause delay, the joint convention 
adjourned until the following Thursday. 
^' There is no knowing what will be done", 



86 JAMES HARLAN 

wrote Samuel McFarland to Harlan. "The 
Locos & Browning are moving heaven and 
earth to defeat any good whig. ... If 
we could have got a ballot this morning I think 
you would have been elected. "^^^ 

In order that their solicitude regarding 
Harlan's views on public questions might ap- 
pear real, the Browning "Whigs, together with a 
number of Democrats, prepared a set of ques- 
tions and sent them to the Mt. Pleasant candi- 
date. The questions were nine in number and 
were intended to bring out Harlan's attitude 
toward the Fugitive Slave Law and its repeal 
or modification, the further agitation of the 
slavery question, Seward's ''Higher Law Doc- 
trine", the right of Congress to admit additional 
slave States, and the binding force of decisions 
of the Supreme Court of the United States. ^^^ 
*'0f course I knew", writes Harlan, ''that the 
foregoing interrogatories had been prepared 
and presented to me, in behalf of Democratic 
and a few old line Whig members of the Gen- 
eral Assembly simply as a political trap: that 
the signers did not intend to vote for me in any 
contingency. They, no doubt, thought that any 
answer that it might be possible for me to give 
would aid them in securing my defeat ".^^^ 

Accordingly Harlan decided to go to Iowa 
City "and give anyone who might desire it an 
opportunity to interview" him personally, in- 



FIRST ELECTION TO SENATE 87 

stead of making a public reply. At the same 
time he drew up a formal letter to be used in 
case there was need of it, in which he declared 
that ''if elected to the Senate of the United 
States, in all Constitutional questions that 
might arise, I would expect to be guided in my 
action by the decisions of the Supreme Court 
and the well settled principles of Constitutional 
Law — in all questions of Legislative Expedi- 
ency, by the views and wishes of the Legislature 
and people of Iowa — and in all questions of 
Conscience by the Bible, "^^o 

Mr. Harlan's course suggests the wisdom of 
a man thoroughly trained in the school of pol- 
itics. By offering to meet the individual in- 
quirers face to face, assuming their good faith 
and honest interest in the questions raised, he 
disarmed them and left in their hands no weap- 
ons with which to attack him. 

The joint convention met for a third time on 
December 21, 1854, and during the day three 
ballots were taken for United States Senator. 
Harlan received the largest number of votes 
on each ballot, but each time he failed to re- 
ceive the fifty votes necessary to a choice. 
Augustus Caesar Dodge who had thus far re- 
ceived the Democratic support, asked that his 
name be withdrawn after the first ballot, and 
his followers divided their votes among 
Thomas W. Claggett, Bernhart Henn, Thomas 



88 JAMES HARLAN 

H, Benton, Jr., and others. The bolting Whigs 
for the most part continued to rally around 
Ebenezer Cook, and thus the deadlock con- 
tinued. Finally the convention adjourned to 
meet again on the fifth day of January, ^^i Qj^ 
that day three more ballots were taken with no 
effect, Harlan lacking three or four votes of 
being elected, and again the joint convention 
adjourned until the following morning.^^- 

On Saturday, January 6, 1855, the hall of the 
House of Representatives was the scene of a 
strange procedure. It had become evident to 
the Democrats, who had a majority of one in 
the Senate, that the end of the contest was 
drawing nigh and that James Harlan would be 
elected. So, in the hope of at least causing 
further delay, the Senate hurriedly adjourned 
on the morning of January 6th, and when a 
committee appeared to inform that body that 
the House was ready to meet in joint conven- 
tion, no Senate was to be found. Nevertheless, 
a number of Senators, without their President, 
entered the hall of the House and took their 
seats. The Speaker announced that the joint 
convention was in session pursuant to adjourn- 
ment, and immediately a tumult burst out. Men 
rose in all parts of the hall, calling for order, 
shouting that the convention was not in session 
because the Senate was not present as an of- 
ficial body, and endeavoring to nominate a 



FIRST ELECTION TO SENATE 89 

presiding officer. The chairman and the clerks 
vainly endeavored to make themselves heard, 
until the Democrats, finding themselves out- 
numbered, withdrew from the hall.^-^ 

The members who remained then proceeded 
to elect a President pro tern, and the Sergeant- 
at-Arms was instructed to notify the forty-four 
absentees that the convention was organized 
and ready to proceed with the election. After 
opportunity had been given the missing mem- 
bers to put in their appearance a ballot was 
taken and it was found that Harlan had re- 
ceived fifty-two votes — a majority of all the 
votes cast and a majority of the members of 
the General Assembly. James Harlan was 
therefore declared duly elected a United States 
Senator from the State of Iowa for the term of 
six years, beginning March 4, 1855.^-* 

The election was plainly accomplished in an 
irregular manner, but whether or not it was 
legal and valid was a question which gave rise 
to much discussion, both in the legislative halls 
and in the newspapers of the State. The Demo- 
crats in the legislature, who had been respon- 
sible for the irregularity because of their 
refusal to meet at the appointed time, drew up 
protests against Harlan's election and entered 
them upon the journals. ^-'^ Thus the basis of a 
contest was established and it was left to the 
Senate of the United States to pass final judg- 
ment. 



IX 

FlEST WiNTEE IN WASHINGTON 

James Haelan, at the age of thirty-five, found 
himself on the threshold of a great opportunity. 
With a contest before him, but with a majority 
of the voters of his State heartily supporting 
him, he had little to fear from the opposition. 
His misgivings were mostly concentrated on 
himself, for he keenly felt his inexperience and 
gravely questioned his ability to ''measure up" 
with the strong men who constituted the Re- 
publican minority in the United States Senate. 
During the time intervening between his 
election and his departure for Washington, 
Senator Harlan was busily occupied. He con- 
tinued to take an active interest and part in his 
college work, although he had resigned from the 
presidency and was succeeded by his friend and 
colleague. Dr. Lucien W. Berry. On July 4th 
he delivered an address at Marion which re- 
veals his intense earnestness and his firm grasp 
of the great problem then confronting the 
Nation. Later in the same month he journeyed 
to Greencastle, Indiana, and delivered the ad- 

90 



FIRST WINTER IN WASHINGTON 91 

dress at the ' ' Quinquennial Celebration ' ' of the 
Platonean Literary Society at *'01d Asbury". 
Returning to Iowa after a brief visit in Indiana, 
he received ''an indication of the mellowing 
influence of the elections" in the shape of a 
formal call from George W. Jones, his Demo- 
cratic colleague in the Senate, who came to Mt. 
Pleasant in a coach and four. In October, 
hoping that outdoor life would benefit his 
health, he accompanied a number of friends on 
a land-hunting trip in an open wagon across 
the country to Council Bluffs and eastern Ne- 
braska, and found much to interest him in the 
unsettled western country. 

During this year, also, James Harlan began 
to lay the foundations of that far-reaching in- 
fluence which made him such a power in Iowa 
politics during the succeeding two decades. 
He opened correspondence with ''active, capa- 
ble, discreet, patriotic" Republicans in every 
county-seat and in other towns of any consider- 
able size, and through them with local leaders 
in nearly every voting precinct. This cor- 
respondence thus begun, while involving a vast 
amount of labor, not only enabled Harlan to 
feel the political pulse of his constituents 
throughout his senatorial career, but also bound 
to him a large army of loyal supporters in all 
portions of the State. Furthermore, it is an 
instance of the thorough organization which 



92 JAMES HARLAN 

characterized the Republican party in Iowa 
during its early years. ^-"^ 

Late in November Senator Harlan set out on 
the long and tedious journey to Washington, 
going by mail coach from Mt. Pleasant to 
Burlington and thence by rail through Chicago, 
Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Balti- 
more. There were, in those days, no through 
trains to the East from Chicago, but the line 
"was owned and operated by numerous separ- 
ate companies, totally independent of each 
other; subjecting travelers to frequent, and 
sometimes long delays, at the termini of the 
several sections composing the whole line." In 
fact it was not until November 27th that Harlan 
arrived in Washington, the journey having 
occupied nearly six days. 

''I made this journey under considerable de- 
pression of feeling", he writes. ''My health 
was so bad as to lead me to think I w^ould not 
live longer than a year or two." Though his 
financial condition was ''not desperate", his 
means were limited. "And I came", he con- 
tinues, "to fight a battle for my right to a seat 
in a body of eminent statesmen a large majority 
of whom were politically hostile to my claim; 
and all of whom, except my colleague, were 
total strangers .... And I was affiliated 
with a new party then just forming, to which 
the old Whig and Democratic parties were bit- 



FIRST WINTER IN WASHINGTON 93 

terly hostile". Outside of the little coterie of 
Republican Congressmen and their families 
there were said to be not more than a half-dozen 
anti-slavery people in the District of Columbia, 
and these were '4n constant danger of being 
mobbed and driven from the capital city.''^^"^ 

On December 3, 1855, the oath of office was 
administered to James Harlan and he took his 
seat in a body made famous by the presence of 
such men as Charles Sumner, William H. 
Seward, William P. Fessenden, John P. Hale, 
Hamilton Fish, Hannibal Hamlin, Benjamin F. 
Wade, John J. Crittenden, Lyman Trumbull, 
Lewis Cass, Robert Toombs, Judah P. Benja- 
min, Stephen A. Douglas, and Samuel Houston. 
Harlan's credentials were presented by his 
colleague. Senator George W. Jones, who called 
attention to the protest of the Iowa Senate 
which had been received during the preceding 
session of Congress. Jones declared, however, 
that he was anxious to have Harlan's cooper- 
ation and therefore urged that he be sworn in 
and the question of his right to a seat be de- 
cided later.^2® As a matter of fact it was more 
than eight months before the subject was again 
mentioned in the Senate. 

The new Senator from Iowa was placed on 
two committees, the Committee on Agriculture 
and the Committee on Manufactures, neither of 
which ranked very high at that time. He was 



94 JAMES HARLAN 

fifth and last on the Committee on Agriculture, 
but he * ' furnished it with the only item of busi- 
ness it ever transacted" while he remained a 
member. Harlan early endeavored to acquaint 
himself with the various governmental officials 
and their work. Among those whom he met 
was Lieutenant M. F. Maury, Superintendent 
of the Government Naval Observatory. It was 
Lieutenant Maury who made the suggestion 
which led to the establishment of the system of 
meteorological observations at sea, and Harlan 
became much interested in the success and 
practical value of that work. It occurred to 
him that similar government observations on 
land would be of immense service, especially to 
the farmers, and so, with the consent of the 
Committee on Agriculture, he prepared and 
presented an exhaustive report, together with 
a bill * ' To extend and encourage, for the benefit 
of agriculture, and other pursuits, the meteor- 
ological investigations of the National Observa- 
tory and Hydrographical Office." Although 
this first attempt at constructive statesmanship 
was not even permitted a hearing, its originator 
took not a little satisfaction, years afterward, 
in the consciousness that it became the basis of 
"Weather Bureau legislation.^^^ 

Aside from this report and bill, however. 
Senator Harlan took little part in the proceed- 
ings of the Senate during his first three months 



FIRST WINTER IN WASHINGTON 95 

in Washington. He spent his time largely in 
preparing for the great debates on the slavery 
question which he knew were bound to come, 
especially in connection with the situation in 
Kansas. He made a careful study of court 
decisions, and collected and collated a great 
deal of other material bearing upon the subject. 
Meanwhile he kept up his extensive correspond- 
ence with his constituents in Iowa and in 
February wrote a letter which was read at the 
State convention of the newly formed Eepub- 
lican party in Iowa and became the key-note of 
the platform adopted at that time. A little later 
in the same month he introduced a bill relative 
to the five per centum on the public lands in 
Iowa, and made a short speech in support of the 
bill.130 

The opportunity for which James Harlan had 
been preparing came when a ''Bill to authorize 
the people of Kansas to form a constitution and 
State government preparatory to their admis- 
sion into the Union" came up for consideration 
in the Senate sitting as a committee of the 
whole. On March 27, 1856, he gained the floor 
and spoke for two hours, compelling the atten- 
tion and respect of both friends and foes. ''I 
was greatly embarrassed; and trembled as if 
suffering with a fit of ague", he writes, in re- 
calling his first important speech in the Senate. 
''I was just two hours in the delivery; and of 



96 JAMES HARLAN 

course had the sympathy of all the Republicans 
in the Senate. Mr. Charles Sumner manifested 
an interest that I could never forget. As I 
proceeded with my speech he walked slowly 
past me in the rear of the desk .... and 
whispered 'You are doing well — moderate 
your voice'; and a little later — 'You are suc- 
ceeding admirably; we are all delighted.' And 
I need not say how grateful this unexpected 
encouragement was to my feelings. "^^^ 

Harlan opened his speech by stating that he 
had always been opposed to agitating the sla- 
very question, believing that its discussion was 
''useless, mischievous, and even dangerous to 
the perpetuity of the Union." But since the 
President had forced the question on Congress, 
that body could not now avoid a discussion of 
the subject "without a manifestation of great 
disrespect for the Chief Magistrate of the na- 
tion, and his friends and supporters. ' ' He then 
declared that there was abundant evidence to 
prove that perjury, usurpation, force, and fraud 
were being practiced in Kansas by the slavery 
element in the Territory, but more especially 
by the border ruffians from Missouri. With 
this introduction he plunged into the question 
of the power of Congress to exclude slavery 
from the Territories, and the desirability of 
exercising that power in Territories where sla- 
very had not previously existed. Both ques- 



FIRST WINTER IN WASHINGTON 97 

tions he argued in the affirmative, supporting 
his arguments by historical facts and logical 
conclusions. He pointed out the fact that in 
the organization of nearly every Territorial 
government and in the admission of a large 
number of States thus far Congress had as- 
sumed the power in question, and he insisted 
that the Government of the United States had 
supreme power over all Territories until State 
governments were established. Furthermore, 
he contended that the exercise of that power in 
connection with Kansas was demanded by all 
considerations of justice, equality, and peaceful 
government.^^2 

At the close of his speech Senator Harlan 
was heartily congratulated by his Republican 
colleagues and by a number of Democrats, in- 
cluding ''old Sam Houston" of Texas. And 
although the speech was only one among many 
made in Congress on the Kansas question, it 
apparently made a very favorable impression 
upon the Republican leaders throughout the 
country, since it, together with the speeches of 
Seward, Wilson, Hale, and Collamer, was pub- 
lished in pamphlet form by the Republican 
Association at Washington.^-s ^ correspond- 
ent of the New York Tribune, in describing the 
speech, said: ''The anticipations of his friends 
were high, but I think his speech more than 
fulfilled them .... it worthily engrossed 



98 JAMES HARLAN 

two hours, and was lieard with unalloyed satis- 
faction by the friends of Free Kansas ".^^'^ 

The young lowan now found himself in an 
arena worthy of his powers and in support of a 
cause which enlisted his fullest sympathies. It 
was not more than two weeks until he again 
took a prominent part in a debate in the Senate. 
On April 7th Lewis Cass presented a memorial 
*^from the persons composing the self-styled 
Legislature of Kansas", as he expressed it, 
praying for the admission of Kansas under the 
Topeka constitution. The memorial was re- 
ferred to the Committee on Territories without 
debate, but when it was moved that the me- 
morial be printed objection was raised and a 
debate ensued which continued for four days. 
The memorial was denounced by the pro-slavery 
members who declared that it was ''an im- 
pudent forgery" and "an imposition disre- 
spectful to the Senate". Finally, a motion to 
rescind the order to print the memorial was 
adopted by a vote of thirty-two to three, and 
Senator Cass was granted leave to withdraw 
the troublesome document and return it to the 
source from which it had been received.^^^ 

The three votes against the motion to re- 
scind were cast by Senators Harlan, Seward, 
and Sumner. When the roll-call reached 
Harlan's name not a negative vote had been 
cast, and he voted "no" expecting to find him- 



FIRST WINTER IN WASHINGTON 99 

self alone. Surprised at what seemed to him 
the "complete demoralization" of his Repub- 
lican associates and indignant at the virtual 
branding of the ''Free State" people of Kansas 
as forgers and traitors, he defiantly recorded 
his negative vote. Much to his relief he was 
followed by Seward and Sumner, the latter 
afterward informing him that he had intended 
to withhold his vote, until he heard Harlan's 
negative. ^^^ 

On the following day, April 11, 1856, James 
H. Lane of Kansas, who was the bearer of the 
ill-fated memorial, came to Harlan and declared 
''that he was mortified beyond the power of 
words to express o\er the debate of the pre- 
ceding day". He also stated that Horace 
Greeley, who was in the gallery when the vote 
was taken, "was fighting mad" and had said 
that "he was amazed at such stupidity on the 
part of Eepublican Senators; that Harlan, of 
Iowa, seemed to be about the only level headed 
man among them". Greeley also suggested to 
Lane that he get Harlan "to move a reconsider- 
ation of the question, so that the Republican 
Senators could put themselves right on the 
record ".^^^ 

Since Senator Harlan had voted in the nega- 
tive he could not move a reconsideration. But 
he suggested to Mr. Lane that he draw up an 
individual petition, incorporating in it the re- 



100 JAMES HARLAN 

jected memorial. This advice was followed. 
On April 14tli Harlan presented the recon- 
structed petition and in a long speech defended 
its right to consideration. The question was 
debated for over five hours and in the end the 
petition was laid on the table by a decisive vote. 
This time, however, the eleven Republican 
Senators voted in the negative, thus accomplish- 
ing the chief purpose for which the petition was 
re-introduced and restoring the party integ- 
rity. ^^^ 

The courageous part taken in the Kansas 
struggle by the new Senator from Iowa won 
Harlan a wide reputation, and he was flooded 
with correspondence and requests for copies of 
his speeches. Moreover, it was evident that the 
pro-slavery people had come to look upon him 
as a formidable antagonist. On the evening of 
April 23rd he was present at a dinner at the 
home of W. W. Corcoran, a prominent banker 
of the capital city and a man of strongly south- 
ern sympathies. The other guests were all 
pro-slavery in their sentiments, and it soon ap- 
peared to Harlan that he had been invited in 
the hope that he could be induced to recede from 
his uncompromising position.^^^ The anti- 
slavery people of the east were equally im- 
pressed with Harlan's ability, for the New York 
Times declared that ''Mr. Harlan, who has 
superceded the stolid incompetency of the 



FIRST WINTER IN WASHINGTON 101 

young Dodge has sprung into the position of 
an admitted leader. He is more than a match 
for the boldest and the strongest of those who 
have hastened forward to grapple with him. 
. . . In the ability to state a proposition 
so as to defy the ingenuity of cavilers, and in 
the resolution and patient courage which re- 
ceives and repels attacks with equal calmness, 
Mr. Harlan has no competitor. "^^*^ 



The Contest m the Senate 

Although James Harlan had for several 
months occupied a seat in the Senate and taken 
a conspicuous part in debate, a protest from 
the Iowa Senate denying him a right to his seat 
was lying on the table and he was always con- 
scious of the precariousness of his position in a 
body of hostile associates. It was not until 
August 13, 1856, however, that the subject came 
up for discussion. On that day Senator Jones 
moved that the resolutions of the Iowa Senate 
be taken up and referred to the Committee on 
the Judiciary. After some debate it was voted 
to take up the protest and it was made a special 
order for twelve o'clock on August 15th. But 
when the appointed time arrived Senator 
Robert M. T. Hunter of Virginia moved to post- 
pone the special order and a spirited debate 
ensued, which was ended by a vote of twenty- 
seven to eighteen in favor of postponement.^"*^ 
Three days later Congress adjourned. ' ' This 
debate and this nearly unanimous vote of the 
democratic Senators", wrote Harlan, ''seemed 

102 



THE CONTEST IN THE SENATE 103 

to me to demonstrate the truth of my conjecture 
. . . . that the democratic leaders had de- 
termined, for political reasons, to defer the 
discussion and decision of my rigM to my seat 
until after the pending Presidential elec- 
tion. "^-^^ 

Soon after the adjournment of Congress and 
the short extra session which followed, Senator 
Harlan returned to his home at Mt. Pleasant. 
The presidential campaign of 1856 was then at 
its height and he found the people of Iowa 
aroused as they had never been before in a 
National contest. The Senator was eagerly 
welcomed by the Republican leaders in the 
State, and he made speeches in nearly all of the 
larger towns in southern Iowa, generally visit- 
ing two county-seats a day, an itinerary in- 
volving a daily drive of from fifty to sixty-five 
miles. ^"^^ "No more slave States!" was the 
slogan everywhere, and the vote of Iowa, elect- 
ing Fremont and Dayton presidential electors 
on a platform demanding the admission of 
Kansas as a free State, was an emphatic ratifi- 
cation of the position taken by Harlan in the 
debates in the Senate. 

The convening of Congress on December 1, 
1856, found Harlan in his seat at the first roll- 
call. On December 15th Senator Jones again 
moved that the Harlan credentials be taken up 
and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. 



104 JAMES HARLAN 

Thereupon, Senator Harlan rose and thorough- 
ly presented the facts in the ease. He read all 
of the constitutional and statutory provisions 
relating to senatorial elections, together with 
the record of the joint convention which had 
elected him, and letters from a number of State 
officers all sustaining him. "In the event of an 
adverse decision," he declared in conclusion, 
** should the people of my State desire my 
presence here, I doubt not they will find means 
to return me; if otherwise, they will have no 
difficulty in selecting from her citizens an abler 
and a better man."^''^ Though he could find 
among the members of the Committee on the 
Judiciary not one political friend, he declared 
that he would not oppose the reference of the 
subject to that committee. 

After a long debate it was voted to refer the 
question to the Committee on the Judiciary, of 
which Andrew P. Butler of South Carolina was 
chairman. The committee did not make its re- 
port until January 5, 1857, and then there was 
a delay of one day in order that the majority 
and minority reports might be printed. On 
January 6th, after a further effort to postpone 
the consideration of the question. Senator 
Butler took the floor and stated at length the 
views of the majority of the committee, to the 
effect that James Harlan had not been legally 
elected. He based his conclusion on the state- 



THE CONTEST IN THE SENATE 105 

ment that the joint convention which elected 
Harlan was not legally constituted, since the 
Senate was not present as an official body, the 
whole argument hinging on technicalities.^*^ 

Strange to say, the minority report, defend- 
ing Harlan's right to a seat in the Senate, was 
presented by Senator Robert Toombs of 
Georgia, one of the most ardent pro-slavery 
advocates in the upper house of Congress. He 
vigorously denied the contention that the ab- 
sence of the Iowa Senate from the joint con- 
vention as an official body invalidated the 
election of Harlan. He declared that the joint 
convention as constituted was "composed not 
of a minority, but of a majority, of all the per- 
sons upon whom this duty devolved by the 
Constitution of the United States and the law 
of Iowa ' ', and in a logical manner answered the 
technical objections raised by Senator Butler. ^^^ 

Following the presentation of the two reports 
by Butler and Toombs there was a general de- 
bate on the question of Harlan's eligibility 
which continued almost without interruption 
until January 12th. Practically all the leaders 
in the Senate took part in the discussion and 
all the arguments in the case were threshed 
over and over. Among those upholding Harlan 
in his right to a seat were Senators William H. 
Seward, George E. Pugh, John P. Hale, 
William P. Fessenden, and Lyman Trumbull. 



106 JAMES HARLAN 

On the opposing side were Stephen A. Douglas, 
Isaac Toucey, Henry S. Geyer, James A. 
Bayard, Judah P. Benjamin, and others. The 
vote was finally taken on January 12th and 
Harlan's seat was declared vacant "by a vote of 
twenty-eight to eighteen. ^^'^ 

''To all impartial thinkers, as it seems to 
me," was James Harlan's comment later in life, 
"this objection to the legality of my election 
must appear to be merely technical and not 
substantial. Nevertheless I did not then, and 
do not now think that those who maintained 
that it constituted a substantial defect were dis- 
honest. It is an illustration, however, of the 
psychological effect of strong desire on the 
human judgment. "^^^ 

Within an hour after the adverse decision 
was reached in the Senate, Harlan was on his 
way to the capital of his State, confidently 
anticipating a vindication at the hands of the 
legislature which was then in session. Imme- 
diately after his arrival the General Assembly 
by concurrent resolution agreed to meet on the 
afternoon of January 17th to elect a United 
States Senator to fill the vacancy which had 
been declared to exist. In the joint convention 
which followed, James Harlan found ample 
vindication in the vote of every Republican 
legislator, sixty-three in all and an overwhelm- 
ing majority of the votes cast."^ On the 



THE CONTEST IN THE SENATE 107 

evening of the same day the reelected Senator 
was given a reception at the capitol building by 
the Eepublican members of the legislature. 

A sleighride across the country sixty miles, 
with the mercury twenty degrees below zero, a 
brief visit with his family at Mt. Pleasant, and 
the Senator, now armed with authority which 
could not be disputed, returned to Washington 
to resume his duties. He reached the capital 
city on the 29th of January, and on the same 
day his credentials were presented by Lyman 
Trumbull of Illinois, the oath of office was once 
more administered to him, and he took his seat 
amid the congratulations of his colleagues. ^^^ 
Whether or not he had legally been entitled to 
his seat in the first place is a question which it 
is useless to discuss. There were strong argu- 
ments on both sides, and as a matter of fact the 
question had little effect on Harlan's career, 
since he was absent from his place in the Senate 
less than three weeks. 



XI 



The Lecompton Constitution and the 
Deficiency Bill 

The erection of a brick residence at Mt. 
Pleasant, the mailing of public documents to 
Ms constituents, and the writing of many let- 
ters occupied James Harlan's time during the 
spring and summer of 1857. During the fall 
he was drawn into the campaign which preceded 
the election of State officers, and he made a 
number of speeches in support of Ralph P. 
Lowe, the Republican candidate for Governor. 
A number of important political issues con- 
fronted the people of Iowa at this time. A new 
State Constitution was submitted to a popular 
vote in August and adopted by a small ma- 
jority, and as a consequence certain readjust- 
ments were necessary in the governmental 
machinery. Moreover, upon the legislature at 
its next session would devolve the necessity 
of choosing a United States Senator to succeed 
George W. Jones, whose term was about to 
expire. The choice of members of the General 
Assembly, therefore, was of great importance, 

108 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 109 

Harlan was strongly urged to take sides in 
the discussion of the senatorial succession, but 
he deemed it unwise, if not improper, even to 
seem to dictate the selection of his future col- 
league. James W. Grimes, whose home was at 
Burlington, less than thirty miles from Mt. 
Pleasant, was the leading candidate, and many 
of Harlan's correspondents warned him that 
the election of Grimes would preclude the pos- 
sibility of his own reelection, since that would 
be unduly favoring the southern part of the 
State. But Senator Harlan paid little attention 
to these warnings, since at that time the ques- 
tion of whether or not he remained in the 
Senate was a matter of indifference to him.^^^ 

The opening of Congress in December, 1857, 
found James Harlan in his place in the Senate, 
and he was soon deep in the controversy pre- 
cipitated by President Buchanan's first message 
to Congress. The message was a great dis- 
appointment to Harlan. ''It had been hoped 
that he would find some practical method of 
putting an end to the outrages and bloodshed 
being perpetrated in Kansas, consistent with 
justice, honor, and American ideas of civil gov- 
ernment. Hence when that part of his first 
annual message to Congress was read, in which 
he recommended the admission of Kansas as a 
State in the union under what was known as the 
Lecompton Constitution, which would be a Con- 



110 JAMES HARLAN 

gressional endorsement of the infamous enact- 
ments of the fraudulent Legislature of that 
Territory, all hope of an amicable adjustment 

and settlement of these Kansas troubles van- 
ished. "^^^ 

In the long and acrimonious debate on the 
question of the admission of Kansas under the 
Lecompton Constitution Senator Harlan took a 
prominent part on only one occasion. On Janu- 
ary 25th he made an extended speech which not 
only embodied a clear statement of his own 
views on the vexed question, but also pointed 
out the differences between the attitude of the 
Republicans and that of the Democrats and 
between that of the Northern and the Southern 
wings of the Democratic party.^^^ 

''To follow the advice of the President and 
those who agree with him, ' ' he declared after a 
few preliminary remarks, "will secure the 
organization of a slave State on free soil; to 
adopt the policy proposed by the Senator from 
Illinois, [Stephen A. Douglas] will exclude 
slavery from this domain as effectually as if 
Congress should re-enact 'that neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist north 
of 36° 30' north latitude;' for it is now known 
to us all, that an overwhelming majority of the 
people of Kansas are opposed to slavery; and 
there is no practical difference between ex- 
cluding it directly by an act of Congress, and 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION HI 

excluding it indirectly by a submission of the 
question to the people, when we all know, when 
everybody knows, when the whole world knows, 
they would abolish it without ceremony. ' ' 

Senator Harlan then proceeded to state the 
position of the two factions of the Democratic 
party. Both wings made strong professions of 
attachment to the principle laid down in the 
Kansas-Nebraska Act that the people of the 
Territory should be left to regulate their own 
affairs in their own way, subject only to the 
Constitution of the United States. President 
Buchanan and those who supported him insisted 
that the convention which drew up the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution was legally constituted and, 
therefore, that the Constitution itself was a 
valid instrument. But, while he admitted, as a 
general principle, the right of the people to 
require the submission of the Constitution to a 
popular vote, the President denied the expedi- 
ency of submission in this case, because it would 
be an infraction of the doctrine of non-interven- 
tion by Congress. ''They claim", said Harlan, 
"that, to require the people to vote for or 
against their fundamental law, by an act of 
Congress, would be as distasteful to freemen as 
would be a denial of that right." 

The northern wing of the Democracy under 
the leadership of Stephen A. Douglas, on the 
other hand, maintained that the Constitution 



112 JAMES HARLAN 

should be submitted to a vote of the people of 
Kansas. This right was not only guaranteed 
to the people by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, but 
had been pledged by the President of the United 
States, by Governor Walker of Kansas, and by 
members of Congress. 

Having thus outlined the attitude of the two 
factions of the Democratic party. Senator 
Harlan stated the points wherein his own views 
and those of the Republican party differed from 
the arguments of Douglas and his followers in 
their opposition to the Lecompton fraud. He 
even went so far as to say that there were no 
legal reasons why the Constitution need be sub- 
mitted to a popular vote. But even were this 
right granted it would be a very small privilege 
— a mere negative right of veto, comparable to 
that gained by the Plebeians in ancient Rome 
''when they acquired the right in the person of 
their tribunes, to sit at the feet of Senators, and 
write 'veto' on Roman laws." 

What the Republican party demanded, de- 
clared the Iowa Senator, was much more than 
this mere right of the people to veto a constitu- 
tion which had been dictated to them. He 
maintained that the convention which framed 
the Lecompton Constitution was not a legit- 
imate body, because the delegates had been 
elected through fraud and coercion and they did 
not represent a majority of the people of 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 113 

Kansas. And further, he charged ''that this 
criminal neglect was by design, and for the pur- 
pose of excluding a fair expression of the will 
of the people; and that the officers of this 
Government, including the President, with a 
full knowledge of all the facts, have openly 
participated in the consummation of this open 
and flagrant robbing of the people of their 
dearest rights as American citizens — the right 
to select their own rulers and to make their own 
laws; and that the acquiescence of the people 
has been coerced by the President by the use of 
Federal bayonets!" He demanded, not the 
right of the people of Kansas to vote upon their 
constitution, but their right to make that consti- 
tution through legally chosen representatives. 
Continuing his speech, he declared that it was 
very evident that the southern Democracy had 
from the first determined to erect Kansas into 
a slave State. This was shown by the in- 
ordinate haste of the Democrats to establish 
two Territorial governments for a region in 
which, at the time the act was passed, there 
were not more than one hundred American 
citizens. Further evidence of this determina- 
tion was to be found in the persistent policy of 
removing every Territorial officer who mani- 
fested any tendency to show the Free-State men 
''even-handed justice", including four Terri- 
torial Governors. 

8 



114 JAMES HARLAN 

In conclusion, the Senator denied the claim 
of the South that ''the title to slave property 
must be placed on the same footing with the 
title to other species of property." The only 
law, he declared, which recognized the right to 
hold human beings as property was the law of 
force. If the people of the South found them- 
selves under "a necessity pressing on them to 
continue the institutions under which they have 
lived," he was willing that they should be per- 
mitted to regulate their own affairs in States 
where slavery already existed. But he denied 
them the right to force slavery into a Territory 
where it was in no sense a necessity and where 
a majority of the people were opposed to it. 

This bold, straightforward speech of the Iowa 
Senator made a good impression in the Senate, 
and received favorable comment in many of the 
leading newspapers throughout the country. 
The New YorJc Tribune pronounced it "a pow- 
erful speech on Slavery, highly logical and 
philosophical in its character. "^^* The Repub- 
lican press of Iowa was very profuse in its 
praise and there was scarcely a paper of any 
size which did not print the speech in full or 
make extended extracts from it. Harlan's 
course was exultingly compared by the Repub- 
licans with the stand taken by Senator Jones in 
support of the Lecompton Constitution much to 
the chagrin of many of his Democratic constitu- 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 115 

ents.^^^ Furthermore, Senator Harlan received 
scores of letters commending Mm for Ms 
speech. Among them was a letter from Alvin 
Saunders of Mt. Pleasant, who declared that 
Harlan had kept many Eepublicans in Iowa 
from going to Douglas. "Very many of our 
Northern friends," wrote Saunders, "even 
among Republicans, were disposed to fall in 
with Douglas believing that he was occupying 
the true Republican ground, when the truth is, 
as you have clearly shown, he is no more con- 
sistent than the other wing."^^^ 

From January 25, 1858, until late in April, 
Senator Harlan took almost no part in the dis- 
cussions on the floor of the Senate. He busied 
himself with committee work, cMefly that of the 
Committee on Public Lands, of which he was a 
member, and with attending to the interests of 
his constituents. On February 3rd he intro- 
duced a resolution instructing the Committee 
on the Judiciary "to inquire into the constitu- 
tionality and expediency of a law allowing the 
new States such increased representation in 
Congress as their present population would 
entitle them to under the apportionment of 
1850."^^^ The resolution was considered by 
unanimous consent and adopted, but for some 
unexplained reason the committee failed to re- 
port. Had the resolution been acted upon, 
Iowa's representation in the House of Repre- 



116 JAMES HARLAN 

sentatives would at that time have been in- 
creased from two to five members. 

Six days later Harlan presented a memorial 
from the General Assembly of Iowa asking that 
the State be indemnified for expenses incurred 
in repelling the invasion of the Sioux Indians 
in March, 1857, which resulted in the Spirit 
Lake massacre, and that the volunteers in the 
Spirit Lake expedition be granted bounty 
lands.^^^ After consideration in committee the 
appropriation asked for in the memorial was 
made. On February 10th he presented the 
credentials of James W. Grimes, who was to be 
his colleague after March 4, 1859, to succeed 
George W. Jones. Petitions from Iowa asking 
for additional mail routes, for the improvement 
of rivers, for land grants to aid in building 
railroads, for the repeal of the duty on sugar, 
and for various other objects, engaged the 
Senator's attention during the succeeding 
weeks. He also took a small part in the debate 
on the question of the admission of Minnesota 
into the Union.^^^ 

On April 23rd Senator Harlan took the floor 
as the leader of the opposition to one phase of 
the Deficiency Bill. This was a bill to supply 
deficiencies in the appropriations for the gov- 
ernmental service for the year ending June 30, 
1858, to the amount of nearly ten millions of 
dollars. Among the various items was one 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 117 

appropriating two hundred and twenty thou- 
sand dollars to supply a deficiency in the appro- 
priation for the survey of lands in California. 
Harlan charged that the Surveyor General, who 
had directed these surveys and had imposed 
this large debt upon the government, had done 
so without authority of law. He had supposed, 
he said, 'Hhat the officers of this Government 
were to be controlled by the amount of money 
appropriated by Congress in contracts made by 
them". Instead of being guided by this prin- 
ciple the Surveyor General had greatly exceed- 
ed the fifty thousand dollars which had been 
appropriated for carrying on his work, and now 
sought to justify his actions on the ground that 
the ' ' liberal appropriations that had been made 
in previous years by Congress for the same 
services induced the belief that the same policy 
was to be continued," 

Throughout the extended debate, which con- 
tinued for practically two days, James Harlan 
persisted in his opposition to the policy of 
allowing government officials to exceed the 
amount of money appropriated for carrying on 
their work, except in cases where extreme ne- 
cessity required such a course. Again and 
again he drew upon his own experience as a 
surveyor, to the confusion of his opponents, 
among whom was Senator Jones, who had no 
practical knowledge of the subject. In the end. 



118 JAMES HARLAN 

however, his amendment to strike out this par- 
ticular item from the Deficiency Bill was voted 
down by a large majority and the appropriation 
was made.^*^^ 

The remainder of the session passed with 
little to break the routine activities of a com- 
paratively silent member of the Senate. Silence 
on the floor, however, did not mean that the 
Senator was idle. Petitions and memorials 
from Iowa demanded much of his time. The 
bulk of business brought before the Committee 
on Public Lands was also large and there were 
problems of an intricate and technical character 
to be solved. On May 3rd, as a member of this 
committee, he made a report in favor of divert- 
ing for the establishment of an agricultural 
college five sections of land which had originally 
been granted to the State of Iowa for the erec- 
tion of public buildings. On the same day also 
he made a report favoring the granting of the 
right of preemption to certain Hungarian set- 
tlers in Iowa who were living on public lands 
which were about to be sold. A law embodying 
the recommendations of the second report was 
passed, and the suggestions relative to an 
agricultural college received favorable action in 
the Senate.i«i 

Another instance in which James Harlan sup- 
ported the interests of the people of Iowa under 
circumstances annoying to himself, occurred in 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 119 

connection with the seating of a new Senator 
from Minnesota. On May 12th Senator Toombs 
moved that the oath of office be administered to 
Henry M. Rice, the Senator-elect. Harlan im- 
mediately arose and, evidently under embar- 
rassment, referred to certain charges made by 
the settlers on the Fort Crawford Reservation 
in Iowa that they had been defrauded by Rice 
in the sale of their claims. Harlan merely 
stated the facts as they had been brought to him 
and asked that an investigation be made ; but he 
was immediately assailed from all sides, espe- 
cially by southern Senators, as perpetrating a 
flagrant outrage on Mr. Rice. This severe 
criticism of Harlan was only ended when 
Senator Jefferson Davis rose in his defense and 
in strong terms declared that if the Senator 
from Iowa had any information which would 
disqualify the Senator-elect from taking his 
seat, he had a right to present it, and, moreover, 
in so doing he was only performing his duty to 
his constituents.^®^ 



XII 

The Pacific Railroad Bill in 1859 

The adjournment of Congress about the middle 
of June, 1858, enabled Senator Harlan to return 
to Mt. Pleasant. But he was not permitted to 
remain long with his family, for, in common 
with the other Republican leaders, he was 
pressed into service in the State campaign then 
in progress. Urgent calls for political speeches 
came from all parts of the State. Letters writ- 
ten by Harlan to his wife during these summer 
months tell of the hardships of the campaign, 
with lack of transportation facilities other than 
private conveyances and with poor hotel ac- 
commodations, or none at all. This was a 
period of great activity in railroad building, 
and the question of State aid to these new and 
important enterprises was much discussed in 
Iowa during the campaign.^®^ 

The second session of the Thirty-fifth Con- 
gress, which convened on December 6, 1858, was 
largely devoted to public measures of an 
economic and non-partisan nature, rather than 
to exciting political questions such as character- 

120 



THE PACIFIC RAILROAD BILL 121 

ized the majority of the sessions of Congress 
during this critical period. '* Personally", 
writes Harlan, ''I participated in these miscel- 
laneous discussions only when, in my opinion it 
became my duty as one of the representatives 
of my State to do so ; and thus avoided the use- 
less consumption of time. I devoted all my 
time when out of the Senate chamber, or in 
Committee, in the careful perusal of the official 
reports of the various Departments, the reports 
of Committees, in looking over the leading 
newspapers, and in my correspondence, chiefly 
with my fellow citizens in Iowa and members of 
my family. "^^^ 

Among the few subjects which Senator 
Harlan discussed at any length on the floor of 
the Senate during this session, and the most 
important one from the standpoint of the people 
of Iowa, was the Pacific Eailroad Bill. This 
bill authorized the President of the United 
States ''to contract for the transportation of 
the mails, troops, seamen, munitions of war, and 
all other Government service, by railroad, from 
the Missouri river to San Francisco, in the 
State of California." The proposition was not 
a new one, for it had been discussed in Congress 
at preceding sessions. So when Senator Harlan 
addressed the chair on January 6th, he was 
cognizant of all the arguments which had been 
advanced relative to the bill, pro and con. 



122 JAMES HARLAN 

Harlan assumed from the exhaustive discus- 
sion of the subject, covering several years, that 
there was a general conviction as to the prac- 
ticability and necessity of a railroad from the 
Mississippi Valley to the Pacific coast. It was 
also generally conceded, he believed, that this 
work must be effected by private enterprise 
aided by the government. He therefore con- 
fined his remarks to ''the propriety of the 
location of the general route of the road by 
Congress itself." The language of the bill, he 
said, was calculated to deceive, because it gave 
the impression that the selection of the route 
for the proposed railroad was conferred upon 
the President. A more careful reading, how- 
ever, would reveal the fact that the important 
power of selecting the route was to be left to 
the contractor, after the contract had been 
''made, signed, sealed, and delivered; after the 
monopoly, if it should be a monopoly," had 
been secured. Therefore, no real discretion 
remained for the President. 

Furthermore, Harlan believed that Congress 
alone should have the power of locating the 
road. The object to be secured was the rapid 
transportation of mails, troops, munitions of 
war, and supplies, in such a manner as to pro- 
mote the general welfare and render the means 
of defense more efficient. Consequently, it 
seemed to him "not only appropriate that Con- 



THE PACIFIC RAILROAD BILL 123 

gress should locate the general route of the 
road, but that it requires the exercise of a dis- 
cretion which the legislature of the nation 
cannot transfer to another." On Congress, not 
the President, nor any other officer of the gov- 
ernment, had been conferred the power to 
establish post roads, to raise and support 
armies and a navy, to regulate commerce, and 
to provide for the common defense and the 
general welfare ; and none of these powers could 
be delegated. 

''If it were the enactment of a law merely," 
continued Senator Harlan in words which read 
like prophecy, ''none, perhaps, would contend 
that Congress could transfer that discretion; 
but it is not only the enactment of a law estab- 
lishing a national mail route, and military road, 
but the creation of iron ligaments, with which 
to bind together discordant States, and the 
establishment of a great avenue for travel and 
commerce across the continent, connecting the 
people of this country, by a direct line of rail- 
road and ocean steamers, with the populous and 
wealthy Asiatic States, and the East India 
Islands, which, it is said, is to control the trade 
of this continent, of Europe, and of the world. ' ' 
He strongly objected to the conferring of a 
power of such vast consequences upon a mail 
contractor. 

Congress should locate the general route of 



124 JAMES HARLAN 

the railroad for many reasons. In the first 
place, if a route were chosen before the contract 
was let it would secure fair competition among 
bidders. The contract might then be let to one 
company or the road might be divided into sec- 
tions and given to separate companies to con- 
struct. Again Congress should act in order that 
the most direct route might be secured. If the 
choice were left to a contractor he might choose 
the most circuitous route, since that would be 
distinctly to his advantage, and there was noth- 
ing in the way of assurance that the contractor 
would not cease his operations when he had 
reached the mountains where railroad construc- 
tion was more difficult and expensive than on 
the plains. Finally, Congress should locate the 
route because it was, or ought to be, the best 
qualified to make an enlightened and impartial 
choice. Harlan severely arraigned Senators 
who wished to shift the responsibility on the 
ground of lack of information, when the gov- 
ernment had expended over a million dollars in 
surveying the proposed routes and in publishing 
elaborate reports. 

In conclusion. Senator Harlan indicated the 
route which he preferred. There was little 
difference in the difficulties or expense of the 
three routes proposed. A railroad could be 
built on any one of them within the period of 
ten or twelve years. But he believed that 



THE PACIFIC RAILROAD BILL 125 

neither the extreme northern nor the extreme 
southern route could honestly be defended. He 
advocated a line between the thirty-seventh and 
forty-second degrees of north latitude, because 
such a line would be nearer the geographical 
center of the country, but especially because it 
would lead out from the centers of population 
and wealth. He therefore moved that the bill 
be so amended as to require the location of the 
road between the thirty-seventh and forty- 
second parallels.^^^ 

A few days later Harlan again spoke in sup- 
port of his amendment and proceeded to 
marshal the votes which could be counted on to 
favor the central route. The solid vote of the 
five States of the Old Northwest, of Minnesota, 
Iowa, and Missouri, and of New York and 
Pennsylvania, was assured — in all twenty 
votes. New England's votes, which he hoped to 
secure, would increase the number to thirty- 
two, and California would swell it to thirty- 
four — a clear majority in the Senate. He was 
positive in his declaration that unless some 
such amendment should be adopted, so as to 
locate the route near the center of the Republic, 
the bill could not be passed.^^^ 

Although no final decision in regard to the 
location of the Pacific Railroad was reached at 
this session of Congress, it can not be doubted 
that Senator Harlan's clear and logical argu- 



126 JAMES HARLAN 

ments had mucli force in determining the atti- 
tude of many of his colleagues. That he was 
actuated by a desire to promote the general 
welfare of the country, rather than merely to 
please his own constituents, is indicated by the 
fact that the limits set in his amendment in- 
cluded nearly all of Missouri, while they 
included only the southern half of Iowa. 

The agricultural college land grant, the 
Indian appropriation bill, the Mobile and Ohio 
Railroad bill, the contested election of a Senator 
from Indiana, a bill to establish a post route in 
the far West, and the post-office appropriation 
bill, were among the subjects which drew occa- 
sional remarks from Senator Harlan during the 
course of debate.^^^ But of all these the bill 
which was watched with the greatest interest by 
the people of Iowa was the one granting a large 
amount of land to the various States to aid in 
the establishment of agricultural colleges. This 
bill, or others of a similar character, had been 
before Congress for several preceding sessions, 
and was destined to failure again this session, 
although in this instance it lacked only the ap- 
proval of the President. But Harlan 's remarks 
in support of this bill indicate not only his 
personal attitude on the subject, but also reveal 
his strong democratic principles. 

On the first day of February, 1859, Harlan 
replied to Senator James M. Mason of Virginia, 



THE PACIFIC RAILROAD BILL 127 

who strongly opposed the measure. He was at 
a loss, he declared, to see in the pending propo- 
sition anything in the nature of a bribe to the 
States. It merely proposed that the States be- 
come trustees for the disposition of a few 
thousand acres of land. The bill did not coerce 
a State into acceptance of the trust. "If 
Virginia or Georgia concludes that it will not be 
for the advancement of the interests of the 
people of those States to accept this trust they 
can decline its acceptance; but other States of 
the Union, who are not so fearful of the conse- 
quences to flow from the establishment of 
educational institutions, and systems of com- 
mon schools, as is the State of Virginia, may 
accept the trust, as it seems to me, without dis- 
honor to themselves or danger to the people 
who are interested." 

He conceded that there might be no specific 
provision in the Constitution authorizing this 
method of disposing of the public lands, but 
neither had there been for various similar 
grants in the past. "There may be those", 
rang out the closing words of his main speech, 
"who are not disposed to give the means for 
the development of the minds of the masses; 
. . . . it may be that it is a blessing to Vir- 
ginia that she is now more largely represented 
by adult white people who are unable to read 
and write, in proportion to her population, than 



128 JAMES HARLAN 

any other State of the Union; it is a blessing, 
however, that the people of my State do not 
covet. They prefer a different condition of 
things. They prefer that the mind of the labor- 
er should be developed ; that the intellect of the 
man who labors and sweats for his own bread 
should be more highly endowed, in order that 
that class of people may become their own 
representatives, even in the legislative halls of 
the nation.""^ 

An interesting side-light on the career of 
James Harlan during this session of Congress 
is furnished by statements which had begun to 
be circulated in Iowa to the effect that Senator 
Grimes and Senator Harlan were not friends. 
These statements, which were clearly made for 
the purpose of hindering Harlan's chances for 
reelection, were no doubt based in part on a 
letter by Henry Clay Dean which appeared in a 
Dubuque newspaper. "Grimes wants Harlan 
out of the way", declared Dean in this letter. 
"Harlan is moral. Grimes is unscrupulous. 
Harlan is not a smooth speaker but he is no 
mean debater. — Grimes never makes a speech 
until he has gotten it by heart, and most of his 
speeches are plagiarisms. . . . Grimes is a 
traveling illustrated definition of the word 
Perfidy incarnate. . . . Harlan, on the 
other hand is revengeful and will make war 
openly on Grimes upon the first outbreak 



THE PACIFIC RAILROAD BILL ]29 

against him. Grimes has some of the poli- 
ticians, under his control. But Harlan has the 
whole Methodist church at his command in a 
contest and nearly the whole church are Repub- 
licans: If Harlan is not re-elected Senator, he 
will be made Bishop. "^^^ 

The falsity of these statements, however, is 
amply proven by the correspondence which 
passed between the two Senators during this 
period. Their letters reveal nothing but the 
utmost good will and confidence, and especially 
is this true of the letters written by Grimes, 
who was usually stated to be the aggressor.^^*' 
''You will see that Dean is almost as compli- 
mentary to you as he is to me," was his good- 
natured comment on the Dean letter, "but you 
are to have the advantage of me in the end, for 
you are to be a 'bishop' when you quit politics 

and I suppose the d 1 will get me in his 

opinion at any rate.""^ 



XIII 

State Politics in 1859 

After the adjournment of Congress in March, 
Senator Harlan hastened to Iowa to make 
preparations for active participation in the 
campaign of 1859. By this time he evidently 
desired reelection and sought to make his en- 
dorsement emphatic. He vigorously cham- 
pioned the Republican cause in this campaign 
upon which hung many important issues, in- 
cluding the choice of a Governor. The Repub- 
lican party controlled the State government, 
but by such a small margin as to render its 
position precarious. 

Among the conditions which threatened to 
undermine the success of the party in Iowa at 
this time was the wave of Knownothingism. 
The German Republicans of the Mississippi 
River counties had become alarmed at the 
Massachusetts proposition extending the pre- 
liminary-residence period of foreign-born citi- 
zens. Consequently they addressed a letter to 
the Iowa Senators and Representatives, re- 
questing them to define their position on the 



STATE POLITICS IN 1859 131 

efforts made in some quarters to discriminate 
between native and foreign-born citizens in the 
matter of suffrage. Harlan replied in a printed 
letter which answered the questions of the 
German Republicans in a manner so satisfac- 
tory that the threatened bolt was averted. He 
declared that he was opposed to any material 
change in the naturalization laws, and that he 
did not approve of any discrimination whatever 
against the rights of naturalized citizens.^^^ 

The Republican State Convention was held at 
Des Moines on June 22nd, and the most effective 
speech of the convention was made by Senator 
Harlan on the subject : ' ' The Democratic Party : 
Its Responsibility, its Practice and Policy, since 
the Inauguration of Franklin Pierce, March 4th, 
1853." He indicted the Democratic party on 
seven counts, all of which were supported by a 
formidable array of facts and conclusions. 

First, he declared, the Democratic party was 
responsible for the evils in the public affairs of 
the Nation, including the enactment of a slave 
code of laws for a free people and its enforce- 
ment in Kansas by federal bayonets. Second, 
that party had abandoned its long cherished 
principles and adopted a new platform with a 
single plank: the constitutional right of the 
slave-holder to emigrate with his slaves into the 
Territories. Third, the Democracy in the free 
States had surrendered the administration of 



132 JAMES HARLAN 

the government into the hands of southern men. 
Fourth, the increased expenses of the govern- 
ment under southern Democratic rule had been 
enormous and unnecessary. Fifth, the burden 
of this increased expenditure had fallen chiefly 
upon the North. Sixth, as measures of relief 
the Democratic party had nothing better to pro- 
pose than increased taxation and the spread of 
slave territory by the occupation and forcible 
acquisition of Mexico and Central America. 
Seventh, in no essential principle or practice 
did the Douglas Democracy differ from the 
Buchanan Democracy. 

The Senator's peroration was a powerful ap- 
peal to Republicans to defend the great truths 
for which their party stood. '*God has raised 
it up," he verily believed, ''to drive from the 
temples of liberty the money-changers, and the 
dealers in the bodies and souls of men, who have 
defiled its altars, to restore to the government 
the principles which controlled its administra- 
tion by our fathers, to secure the perpetuity of 
civil liberty to coming generations, and to con- 
trol the vast energies of this great Republic, 
which is acquiring, with gigantic strides, the 
power and influence among the nations once 
maintained by the Republic of Rome". The 
contest in Iowa was characterized as another 
great battle for Freedom against the united 
forces of the Buchanan and the Douglas Democ- 



STATE POLITICS IN 1859 133 

racy, *'the first as leaders asking for office — 
the latter, as the rank and file, to perform the 
labor." Referring to the anticipated visit of 
Stephen A. Douglas to Iowa, he pictured the 
"Little Giant" sallying forth like another 
Diogenes, with his party thermometer in his 
hand, to ascertain the boundaries of freedom 
and slavery. 

' ' When they tell you that the slavery question 
rests on laws higher than those of legislative 
enactment," appealed the Senator in conclu- 
sion, ** remind them that you know of no law 
higher than the laws of nature and of nature's 
God by which slavery has been condemned from 
the earliest ages of civilization. — When they 
tell you that it is a question which ' self-interest ' 
must control, inform them that your ' self inter- 
est' as tax payers, demands the exclusion of 
slavery from free territories, and the admission 
of free States into the confederacy. . . . 
and that your ' self respect ' among the civilized 
and christian nations, as well as your 'self 
interest', requires the prompt removal of the 
Democratic Party from power, and the restora- 
tion of the government to the principles which 
controlled its administration by its founders. 
For the accomplishment of this result every 
Republican, and every freedom-loving Demo- 
crat in the nation will be held responsible by 
posterity. "^"^^ 



134 JAMES HARLAN 

It was the impassioned speech of a man deep- 
ly in earnest, to an audience equally earnest in 
its opposition to slavery. It opened the cam- 
paign with a vigor and directness of attack 
which compelled the respect of the Democrats 
as well as the admiration and praise of the 
Republicans. Not only was the speech com- 
mended and published by Republican news- 
papers in Iowa, but it was used as a campaign 
document by the party in other States. ^^* 
Moreover, it practically settled all remaining 
questions as to the senatorial succession. 

Throughout the campaign which followed, 
James Harlan labored faithfully in support of 
the Republican State ticket with Samuel J. 
Kirkwood at its head, and in the end had the 
satisfaction of seeing his party victorious at 
the polls. Meanwhile, the question of the 
senatorship had been widely discussed in the 
newspapers, for the next legislature would be 
called upon to select a successor to Senator 
Harlan, whose term would end on March 4, 
1861. The Democrats apparently had small 
hope of electing a Governor or other State of- 
ficers, and as a consequence they concentrated 
their energies upon the effort to secure a 
majority in the legislature and thus to secure 
a United States Senator. Previous to the elec- 
tion, therefore, the Republicans were not so 
much concerned as to the particular man who 



STATE POLITICS IN 1859 135 

should be their candidate for Senator as they 
were to defeat the plans of the Democrats. 

After the election, when it was found that the 
Republicans had a large majority in the legis- 
lature, various men were spoken of for the 
senatorship. From the first it was evident that 
the great mass of the people desired the re- 
election of James Harlan; but he was con- 
stantly warned by his friends that various 
politicians throughout the State were looking 
toward his position with envious eyes. Timothy 
Davis, Thomas H. Benton, Jr., Fitz Henry 
Warren, John A. Kasson, and George G. Wright 
w^ere among those wiiose names appeared as 
possible rivals to Harlan. But there was little 
ground for fear. None of these men made 
strenuous efforts to secure the position, and 
some of them clearly had no thought of entering 
the contest. 

At the caucus of the Eepublican members of 
the legislature, held on the evening of January 
12, 1860, James Harlan was unanimously nom- 
inated for reelection to the United States 
Senate. Two days later, in the joint convention 
of the two houses, Harlan received seventy- 
three votes, as opposed to fifty-two cast for 
his Democratic opponent, Augustus Caesar 
Dodge.^^^ So popular was Harlan at this time 
that certain enthusiastic admirers sought to 
boom him for the vice-presidency.^"® 



XIV 

The Homestead Bill 

Problems connected with the disposal of the 
public lands claimed the greater part of Sena- 
tor Harlan's time and attention during the first 
session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, which 
convened in December, 1859. At the opening 
of the session he was given a place on three 
committees: Public Lands, Pensions, and En- 
grossed Bills. But later the work of the Com- 
mittee on Public Lands became so burdensome 
that he asked and secured a release from ser- 
vice on the Committee on Pensions of which his 
colleague, James W. Grimes, was also a mem- 
I3gj.i7 7 rpjjQ numerous petitions which came 
from the people of Iowa indicate clearly the 
trend of their desires and the needs of a grow- 
ing frontier State. Mail routes, the right of 
preemption for settlers on the Indian reserva- 
tions and military reserves and for relatives of 
settlers who had been murdered in the Spirit 
Lake massacre, a general homestead law, pen- 
sion and bounty lands for veterans of the War 
of 1812, and the repeal of the Fugitive Slave 

136 



THE HOMESTEAD BILL 137 

Law were among the subjects upon which Con- 
gress was asked to legislate.^^^ 

The first speech by Senator Harlan during 
this session was made on January 4, 1860, and 
was an argument against the position taken by 
the President, in his message, relative to the 
extension of slavery into the Territories. 
President Buchanan had declared that the right 
**of every citizen to take his property of any 
kind, including slaves, into the common Terri- 
tories belonging equally to all the States of the 
Confederacy," was fully established, and that 
"neither Congress nor a Territorial Legislature 
nor any human power has any authority to 
annul or impair this vested right ' '. 

Harlan opened his attack on the President by 
declaring that ''the two great political parties 
of the country may now begin to understand 
each other." Quoting the President's words, 
as voicing the attitude of the Democratic party, 
he reasoned that the inevitable corollary was 
that Congress must protect property in slaves 
in the same manner as other property taken to 
the Territories was protected. ''The Repub- 
licans deny the premises," he continued, "and 
are not therefore bound by the conclusion." 
He held that the reasoning of the President was 
as applicable to the States as to the Territories, 
since there still remained in many of the States 
large areas of unsold public lands. If the intro- 



138 JAMES HARLAN 

duction of slaves into the Territories could be 
demanded by the slaveholders on the ground 
that the land in the Territories was the common 
possession of the whole Nation, they might with 
equal reason demand the admission of slaves 
into all the States containing public domain. 
Moreover, if the South were to be consistent 
in its demand for the protection of property in 
slaves it must also demand the repeal of the 
laws against slave-trading. 

He maintained that the right of Congress to 
legislate for the Territories had been repeatedly 
recognized and must be generally conceded. It 
was therefore a question of what policy should 
prevail. ' ' The policy of the Republican party ' ', 
he said, ''invites the Anglo-Saxon, the Celt, the 
Gaul, and others of Caucasian blood, by its pro- 
posed preemption and homestead laws, to enter 
and occupy them; and by the exclusion of 
slavery it will practically exclude the negro and 
kindred races." The negroes either could not 
or would not emigrate to the Territories in large 
numbers of their own free will. Moreover, ne- 
groes were not needed to carry on the work of 
the fields, even in the southern Territories, as 
the slave-holders contended, for it had been 
amply proven by scientists that the white race 
was superior in powers of endurance to the 
negro. 

' ' On the other hand, ' ' continued the Senator, 



THE HOMESTEAD BILL 139 

''the direct and immediate effect of continuing 
the policy of the Democratic party, as defined 
by the President in his message, and sustained 
by every Democratic member of the Senate and 
House, and the Democratic members of the 
Supreme Court, would be to fill the virgin Ter- 
ritories with negroes, wherever negro labor can 
be made profitable. ' ' This had clearly been the 
purpose ever since the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise. If the negroes were in every 
respect an inferior race, as the Democrats 
maintained, ''why stimulate their multiplication 
and coerced emigration to the most desirable 
part of the continent, to the exclusion of mil- 
lions of our ow^n blood?" 

Senator Harlan closed his speech by refer- 
ring in scathing terms to the threat of the South 
to dissolve the Union in case a Republican 
should be elected President of the United 
States. "We must change, because you have 
changed ! "We must repudiate, because you have 
discarded the opinions of the fathers! When 
we approach the polls, we must represent your 
opinions and not our own, by our votes ! That 
is, we must cease to be freemen, and become 
your political slaves! If your political oppo- 
nents will destroy their platform and dissolve 
their organization; if the free States will de- 
stroy their constitutions and repeal their laws 
on the subject of slavery; if a majority of the 



140 JAMES HARLAN 

freemen of tlie country will stultify their own 
judgments, and trample under foot their con- 
sciences ; give up freedom of speech and of the 
press, and cease to exercise the rights of free- 
men at the polls, you will graciously permit the 
Union to be continued ! Well, sir, this mode of 
preserving the Union would cost us too much. 
We have the hearts and heads and hands and 
will to preserve it in a cheaper manner, let the 
crisis come when it may."^'^^ 

This speech met with hearty approval not 
only in Iowa, but throughout the country. It 
was printed in pamphlet form for use as a cam- 
paign document, and was translated into the 
German language for the benefit of the German 
voters of the country.^®*^ 

In March in the debate on a bill to amend the 
act of 1853 establishing a Court of Claims, 
Senator Harlan crossed swords with Senator 
Crittenden and offered an amendment which 
was gladly accepted.^^^ The naval appropria- 
tion bill brought from him some searching 
remarks a few weeks later. ^^- About the middle 
of April he took part in the debate on a bill for 
the benefit of the public schools of the District 
of Columbia. He held that the principles con- 
trolling legislation on this subject in the States 
were equally applicable in the District of Co- 
lumbia. It would be cheaper to contribute 
something for the education of the children of 



THE HOMESTEAD BILL 141 

the District than to support those children in 
the poor-houses, hospitals, jails, and penitentia- 
ries. To an amendment that the children of 
no person taxed under the provisions of the act 
should be debarred from the public schools, Mr. 
Harlan offered an amendment that ^'separate 
schools shall be provided for the education of 
the colored children of the District. "^^^ 

The subject on which the voice of James 
Harlan was heard most frequently and most 
effectively during this session, however, was 
the Homestead Bill. And, much as a majority 
of the people of Iowa were pleased at his firm 
stand against the extension of slavery, this was 
the subject which was of the most personal in- 
terest to them. The passage of a homestead 
law would mean increased prosperity through- 
out the West, where fertile farms were in 
abundance and only awaited the coming of the 
home-seeking settler to produce untold wealth. 

The Homestead Bill, or rather several bills, 
had been before Congress almost from the be- 
ginning of the session. The whole question had 
been thrashed over carefully in the Committee 
on Public Lands by the time James Harlan first 
entered the debate in the Senate on April 3rd, 
and a compromise bill had been substituted for 
the original House and Senate bills. Through- 
out the remainder of the session until the bill 
failed to pass over the President's veto, Harlan 



142 JAMES HARLAN 

labored faithfully in support of the measure. 
The substitute bill was far from being the kind 
of a law he desired, but he gave it his hearty 
support because it was a step in the right direc- 
tion and a more comprehensive homestead law 
could not be passed at that time. He made few 
set speeches on the subject, but throughout the 
long debate was always ready with accurate 
information to meet the points of the opposi- 
tion, and showed his mastery of the problems 
involved.^^^ 

The bill finally passed both houses and was 
submitted to President Buchanan, who vetoed 
it, as Harlan had anticipated, and returned it 
with a statement of his objections. In his reply 
to these objections on June 23, 1860, may be 
found a summary of Senator Harlan's attitude 
toward homestead legislation. In the first 
place, the law did not, as the President de- 
clared, give away public lands; because actual 
settlers were required to pay twenty-five cents 
an acre, and the original price of one dollar and 
twenty-five cents an acre was retained for all 
other purchasers. Moreover, it simply meant 
the abandonment of property which had been on 
the market so long that it had ceased to be of 
value to the general government. He denied 
the President's assertion that it was a discrim- 
ination against actual settlers already in the 
West, against old soldiers who had been given 



THE HOMESTEAD BILL 143 

bounty lands, against mechanics and other 
classes of citizens than farmers, or against the 
older States. The greater immigration to the 
West and the greater prosperity which would 
result from the proposed legislation would 
mean increased value for all the property al- 
ready in the possession of the citizens of the 
region affected. 

The statement that a homestead law would 
''open one vast field for speculation", Harlan 
dismissed as not worthy of notice. He thought 
the President's fear that the law would mate- 
rially diminish the public revenue was un- 
founded. Experience with a similar law in 
Oregon Territory had proved that a very large 
per cent of the settlers bought their land at the 
regular price of one dollar and twenty-five cents 
an acre, before the expiration of the required 
period of occupancy, in order that they might 
sell and thus better their condition. The value 
of property would increase so rapidly, as the 
result of settlement, that settlers would feel it 
to their advantage to secure legal title at the 
earliest possible moment. Finally, to the ob- 
jection that the bill would cut off a source of 
revenue in times of difficulty and danger, he 
replied that it was well known that in times of 
war or financial stringency the sale of public 
lands was reduced to a minimum and could not 
be depended upon as a source of revenue.^^^ 



144 JAMES HARLAN 

The bill lacked three votes in the Senate of 
passing over the President's veto, and its defeat 
is to be attributed not so much to objections to 
the bill itself as to the opposition of the South 
to any homestead legislation. The South right- 
ly feared that such a law would result in greater 
population and increased power in the free 
States of the North and West.^^^ In fact it was 
not until two years later, when a Republican 
President was in the White House, that the 
people of the West secured the measure they so 
much desired. But James Harlan's loyal sup- 
port of the bill did not pass unnoticed or un- 
remembered by his constituents in Iowa. 



XV 

Opposition to Disunion 

CoNGEEss adjourned on June 25, 1860, and after 
a brief executive session of the Senate, James 
Harlan and his family, who had spent the winter 
in Washington, journeyed homeward by way of 
Lexington and Indianapolis. At Burlington, 
where they were delayed over the night of July 
3rd, they were given a ''reception" by the 
''Wide Awakes", as the Eepublican clubs were 
called in the campaign of 1860. "We reached 
our home in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, the next day, 
July 4th, 1860, where we were warmly greeted 
by our neighbors; who, at once, commenced 
making arrangements for a public meeting", 
writes Harlan. The meeting was held on July 
7th in the court house yard, where a large crowd 
of citizens from the town and surrounding 
country gathered to listen to a speech by their 
favorite. The Senator responded by a bold at- 
tack on the record and policies of the Demo- 
cratic party.^^'^ 

This address to neighbors and friends was the 
beginning of a long series of speeches made by 
10 145 



146 JAMES HARLAN 

Senator Harlan during the succeeding four 
months. Never before had the people of Iowa 
taken such a deep interest in a presidential 
election, and never before was there such need 
of sane, fair-minded, convincing stump speakers. 
Senator Harlan placed himself unreservedly 
at the disposal of his party and traveled 
throughout the State, speaking in his usual 
clear and logical manner on the questions of the 
hour. The difficulties of campaigning were by 
no means small even in 1860. For instance, in 
order to fill an engagement to speak at a great 
mass meeting held in Cedar Falls on September 
6th, Harlan spent a night and much of the fol- 
lowing day in journeying, first eastward into 
central Illinois, thence to Dubuque and west- 
ward to Waterloo, from which point he was 
taken by carriage six miles to his destination.^^^ 
Throughout a part of the canvass he was feel- 
ing far from well. But in spite of all difficulties 
he endeavored to fulfill all his engagements, 
and even refused to cancel an appointment at 
the small town of Salem in order to speak at a 
great meeting at Des Moines which people jour- 
neyed long distances to attend.^^^ 

During this campaign the Senator often 
found himself in situations which called for 
rare tact and ability to estimate the character 
of his audience. At Bloomfield on September 
13th, he spoke to an audience of emigrants from 



OPPOSITION TO DISUNION 147 

the border States of Maryland, Virginia, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee. They were much 
prejudiced against anything that savored of 
abolitionism and were suspicious of Republican 
doctrines. Consequently the speaker was care- 
ful to avoid anything that would tend to stir 
up and increase this prejudice, addressing him- 
self in general terms ''to the judgment and 
patriotism" of his hearers. ^^^ 

Two weeks later at Sidney, in the extreme 
southwest corner of Iowa, Harlan found a con- 
dition of affairs even more embarrassing. The 
people were strongly southern in sentiment, and 
in fact no Republican rally had ever been held 
in the county. "The Republicans desired to 
make a strong impression on the public mind; 
and had arranged to have a 'pole-raising', as it 
was called, in the morning, preceding the speak- 
ing. The opposition was equally anxious to 
defeat this effort; and during the night stole 
and concealed the ropes and pullies brought 
into the town during the preceding day, for use 
in raising the Republican pole and flag. The 
Republicans, however, by sending several miles 
into the country, procured other tackle, and with 
an improvised derrick, accomplished their pur- 
pose." 

The next move of the opposition was to 
threaten to mob the speakers, including the 
Senator, if they persisted in defending Repub- 



148 JAMES HARLAN 

lican principles in Sidney. ''I, however, 
quieted all apprehension of a disturbance", 
writes Harlan in describing this event, '*by 
commencing my speech with a vigorous assault 
on any party which advocated principles that 
would not bear public discussion, and an earnest 
defense of 'freedom of speech and of the press', 
without which a free government could not 
exist. I had a very quiet and attentive 
audience. "^^^ 

On the following day Harlan crossed over 
into the Territory of Nebraska and delivered a 
speech at Nebraska City, where he was pro- 
claimed on large posters as "the friend of Free 
Territories and supporter of the Homestead 
Bill in the Senate of the United States." He 
afterward wrote, however, that he never 
learned the reason why he ''was so required to 
spend two days of hard traveling over very bad 
roads from Sidney, Iowa, to Nebraska City, and 
back into Iowa, crossing the Missouri river in 
a ferry boat twice, and thence up north to Glen- 
wood, in order to make a speech to a community 
that had no vote in the approaching election for 
Presidential Electors. "^^^ 

Such were some of the incidents and vicissi- 
tudes of Harlan's canvass during the memor- 
able campaign of 1860. In November he had 
the satisfaction of seeing the Republican party 
victorious in both State and Nation, and of 



OPPOSITION TO DISUNION 149 

knowing that he had contributed his full share 
in producing the result. 

The opening of the second session of the 
Thirty-sixth Congress brought with it a clear 
and unmistakable note of the coming conflict. 
On December 4, 1860, Senator Thomas L. Cling- 
man of North Carolina made the usual formal 
motion to print the President's message. 
Following this motion, he commended the 
patriotic tone of the message, but declared that 
it fell far short of stating the case then before 
the country. Abraham Lincoln had been elected 
"because he ivas hnowyi to he a dangerous man. 
He avows the principle that is known as the 
irrepressible conflict.' He declares that it is 
the purpose of the North to make war upon my 
section until its social system has been de- 
stroyed, and for that he was taken up and 
elected." He defended the South in its prep- 
arations for resistance, and stated his belief 
that unless decided constitutional guarantees 
were promptly obtained it would "be best for 
all sections that a peaceable division of the 
public property should take place", and the 
slave States depart from the Union.^^^ 

About a month later Senator Robert M. T. 
Hunter of Virginia introduced a resolution 
providing for the retrocession of the forts, 
arsenals, magazines, dock-yards and other 
public buildings of the United States to the 



150 JAMES HARLAN 

States in which they were situated, in case such 
States expressed a desire for retrocession.^*^* 
In the ensuing debate Senator Harlan was one 
of the first to oppose this resohition. On Janu- 
ary 11th he took the floor and spoke continu- 
ously for two hours and a half. 

Harlan opened his speech with an avowal of 
his willingness to do anything in his power to 
allay the general commotion. What was its 
cause? He found it stated in a letter written 
by Senator Clay of Alabama in which he de- 
clared that ''we cannot live under the same 
Government with these people [the Northern- 
ers], unless we could control it." In other 
words the "minority must govern the ma- 
jority!" Here was the key to the situation, as 
was amply illustrated in the speech of Senator 
Hunter, proposing radical changes in the Con- 
stitution which would create a new confedera- 
tion in which the minority would control. 
' ' Whatever may be pretended to the contrary, ' ' 
continued Harlan, "the real grievance inflicted 
on 'the South by the North,' is the invitation 
extended to the southern Democracy, on the 6th 
day of last November, to resign the reins of 
Government into the hands of their political 
opponents." 

He held the contract theory upon which the 
secession argument was founded to be un- 
tenable, but even granting its validity the 



OPPOSITION TO DISUNION 151 

Republican party had given the South no 
ground for complaint on that score. Nor did 
the Republicans differ materially from the 
southern Democrats in insisting that individual 
States should not pass laws in violation of the 
Federal Constitution. When the South de- 
manded that they ''ought not to be required to 
submit to the election of a sectional candidate 
to the Presidency" they were not logical. 
Insistence on this demand ''would render in- 
eligible every candidate for the Presidency at 
the recent election." Breckenridge and Bell 
had both received their support almost entirely 
in the South ; while the North had given Douglas 
over four-fifths of the votes which he received. 
In fact, the returns exhibited less sectionalism 
in the support of Lincoln than of any other 
candidate. 

When pressed closely, southern Senators had 
admitted that it was not the escape of a few 
slaves, nor the personal liberty laws, nor the 
election of Lincoln which justified the alarm in 
the South. It was rather "the public opinion 
behind these acts" that 'was causing the com- 
motion. "It is demanded", Harlan said, "that 
the press, the pulpit, the legislator, and the 
elector, in the free States, shall be restrained 
from this discussion which results in this deep- 
seated opposition to your institutions." In- 
deed, Senator Douglas had introduced a bill to 



152 JAMES HARLAN 

that effect. No one must be permitted to speak 
disparagingly of slavery, for "here is an insti- 
tution that is either too good or too bad to be 
talked about. . . . Here is the image set up 
in the plain, which all men must fall down and 
worship, on penalty of being cast into the fiery 
furnace. You have deprived your people in the 
slave States of freedom of speech and of the 
press on this subject ; and you now demand that 
the people of the free States shall adopt your 
laws and usages, on pain of dissolution of the 
Union. ' ' 

The demands of the South that the free States 
permit persons to hold slaves within their 
limits temporarily and for purposes of transit, 
and the demands for a recognition of the equal- 
ity of the States were discussed and dismissed 
as no just grounds for secession. How would 
secession secure to the South the fulfilment of 
any or all of its demands, he asked. 

All of these complaints were mere pretexts on 
the part of the South. "They are not the rea- 
sons", he declared, "of the bluster and threats 
and menace which resound through this 
Chamber. There is a reason, however, which 
justifies itself by every historical parallel. You 
have governed this country for the last sixty 
years. You have controlled its legislation ; you 
have controlled its judiciary; you have con- 
trolled its internal policy; you have controlled 



OPPOSITION TO DISUNION 153 

its foreign relations ; you have grown haughty, 
proud, and — I say it without intending offense 
— insolent. Being accustomed to command, 
you have forgotten how to obey. Although you 
have been fairly beaten at the polls, you refuse 
to yield the Government into the hands of your 
constitutional successors." The Senator closed 
his speech with a review of the history of the 
Democratic party, and with a statement of his 
belief that the North would never consent to 
peaceable secession.^^^ 

A newspaper correspondent, who sat in the 
gallery of the Senate during the debate on the 
Hunter resolution, referred to Mr. Harlan as 
having been suffering from ill health since the 
beginning of the session, and as having re- 
frained from participating in the debate until 
he could no longer suffer the sentiments of the 
great Northwest to remain unheard in the con- 
test. ''And most manfully were they defend- 
ed", wrote the correspondent. ''Commencing 
without embarrassment, and proceeding with 
all the dignity which the discussion of such mo- 
mentous questions should inspire, with a voice 
clear and distinct, he hurled back with most 
impressive power and eloquence the miserable 
and treasonable charges that have been coming 
from the southern members during the whole of 
this session. . . . For two hours and a half 
he held the attention of the Senate and the con- 



154 JAMES HARLAN 

course of people in the galleries, to one of the 
boldest and at the same time most logical, and 
rational speeches that has been made on the 
affairs of the country. "^^'^ 

Other Eepublican newspapers throughout 
Iowa and the entire North were enthusiastic in 
their praise of this speech, and many were the 
letters of hearty commendation which came to 
Senator Harlan.^^' 

The Nation was now drifting rapidly into 
civil war. On December 20, 1860, South Caro- 
lina had passed an Ordinance of Secession and 
before the end of January six other States fol- 
lowed her example. The feeling throughout the 
country was intense. Senator Harlan was daily 
in receipt of numerous letters from Iowa con- 
taining expressions of loyalty to the govern- 
ment and fidelity to the new administration. ' ' I 
am decidedly in favor of the government re- 
possessing itself of her arsenals & forts & other 
property in the quickest possible time — in the 
most determined manner and by the most war- 
like demonstrations if needs be", wrote Ralph 
P. Low^e.^**^ From Alvin Saunders at Mt. Pleas- 
ant came the statement that ' ' I want peace, & I 
want the Union preserved but still I cannot see 
that the Republicans have any concessions to 
make, or anything to take back. ... At 
least three fourths of the Democrats here are 
with us for sustaining the Union ".^^^ At 



OPPOSITION TO DISUNION 155 

Webster City a large meeting of citizens passed 
and sent to Senator Harlan a series of resolu- 
tions enthusiastically endorsing the stand he 
had taken in his speech of January llth.^^o 
With hundreds of letters and endorsements 
such as these the Senator could not mistake the 
spirit of his constituents. 

From the 4th to the 27th of February Harlan, 
together with the other members of the Iowa 
delegation at Washington, represented his State 
in the ''Peace Convention" which had been 
called by Virginia. Twenty-one States were 
represented in this convention, which adopted 
and recommended to Congress several proposed 
amendments to the Federal Constitution, in the 
nature of a compromise, intended to give Vir- 
ginia no pretext for withdrawal from the 
Union. But the convention was in vain, for 
soon afterward Virginia and three other slave 
States joined the cotton States in secession. 
On the day on which the ''Peace Convention" 
assembled the Confederate Government was 
organized.^*' ^ 

On the day of Lincoln 's inauguration an Iowa 
farmer, Coker F. Clarkson by name, wrote a 
letter to Senator Harlan which expresses clear- 
ly the attitude of the people of the Hawkeye 
State toward secession. Moreover, this letter 
marks the beginning of a friendship between the 
two men which remained unbroken through the 



156 JAMES HARLAN 

painful after years when families were divided 
on the question of the Harlan succession. ' ' We 
are for no compromise with treasonable sub- 
jects ' ', wrote Clarkson. ' ' Let the authority and 
strength of the Government first be fully tested, 
no matter how great the sacrifice of blood and 
gold. If our Government be merely a rope of 
sand let us know it, and no longer laud it in 4th 
of July speeches. . . . Let no sacrifice of 
principle be made."^^^ 



XVI 

The Beginning of the Wak 

The country now awaited the inauguration of 
Abraham Lincoln and a definite announcement 
of his policy toward secession. It was becoming 
more and more evident that any plan of concili- 
ation which meant further concessions to the 
slave power was destined to fail. The Repub- 
licans were in the ascendency in nearly all the 
northern States, and while they were anxious 
for peace, they were determined as a whole to 
stand firm on the principles laid down in the 
Chicago platform. Republican leaders, there- 
fore, directed their efforts largely toward avert- 
ing an open rupture until the new President 
could take the helm. 

Meanwhile Lincoln was quietly formulating 
his plans and considering the men whom he 
would choose to make up his Cabinet. As the 
day of inauguration approached he spent much 
time in the capital city conferring with Sena- 
tors, Representatives, and other prominent men. 
Among those whose advice he sought at this 
time was James Harlan, and this conference 

157 



158 JAMES HARLAN 

marks the beginning of a strong personal and 
official friendship between the two men. ' ' Dur- 
ing afternoon of Saturday, March 2nd, 1861," 
writes Harlan, ''I received a call from the 
President-elect of the United States, Abraham 
Lincoln." Previous to this time he had seen 
Lincoln only once, and consequently the atten- 
tion paid him by the President was peculiarly 
flattering. 

*' Being notified by a page, at my desk in the 
Senate Chamber, that the President-elect was in 
the President's Eoom and desired to see me," 
continues Harlan, ^'I at once arose, walked to 
the room, tapped on the door, and was admitted. 
He received me cordially, and, after the usual 
civilities, gave me a seat, and seated himself 
near me, saying, in a familiar way, that he had 
sent for me to tell him whom to appoint for 
heads of the Departments of the Government. 
I, of course, treated this observation as a pleas- 
antry, remarking that as I understood it that 
duty belonged to him; that I had not given the 
subject any consideration, that I expected to be 
satisfied with his selections, and that I had no 
names to suggest." 

Lincoln then proceeded to name the men 
whom he had decided to nominate for the 
Cabinet positions, concluding with the state- 
ment that he was in doubt as to whether he 
should appoint Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania 



THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR 159 

as Secretary of War and Salmon P. Chase of 
Ohio as Secretary of the Treasury, or vice 
versa. It was on this point that he wished 
Harlan's advice. Harlan replied that he had 
not "the slightest doubt that Mr. Chase should 
go to the Treasury Department, and Mr. 
Cameron to the War Department", and he 
frankly stated his reasons for this advice. "He 
thanked me cordially for my frankness, ' ' writes 
Harlan, "and I took my leave. This interview 
lasted, probably about ten minutes. And I soon 
had reason to think, and still think, that my ad- 
vice was effective in settling that question, "^os 

Two days later the Iowa Senator witnessed 
the inauguration of the new President. The 
inaugural address left no doubt as to the policy 
which Lincoln would pursue. At the same time 
it was a distinctly conservative and statesman- 
like address — one which met with the approval 
of an overwhelming majority of the people of 
the North, Republicans and Douglas Democrats 
alike, because of its insistence on the preserva- 
tion of the Union. In the South, however, it 
was accepted as a declaration of war, and 
preparations for the conflict were redoubled. 

In the Senate on March 4th, John C. Brecken- 
ridge delivered his valedictory as presiding 
officer and handed the gavel to his successor. 
Vice President Hannibal Hamlin. The Presi- 
dent's proclamation convening the Senate in 



160 JAMES HARLAN 

extra session was read, and there was a roll-call 
of the newly elected Senators, fifteen in all, 
including James Harlan whose second term 
began at this time. In the appointment of 
committees Harlan was made chairman of the 
Committee on Public Lands in recognition of 
his previous efficient service on that committee, 
and he was given second place on the compara- 
tively unimportant Committee on Printing. 
The Senate remained in executive session for 
three weeks and on March 28th adjourned 
''without having made any declaration of policy 
in relation to the States that had proclaimed 
their severance from the Union; or any new 
policy in relation to slavery in the Territories. 
Nor did the Senate undertake to give advice to 
the President about affairs at Charleston Har- 
bor.''^^^ 

Senator Harlan now had his first real experi- 
ence with office-seekers. For some time after 
the adjournment of the Senate he remained in 
Washington, feeling it to be his duty to see to it 
''that the Republicans of Iowa should receive 
their fair proportion of the numerous national 
positions of honor and trust then, for the first 
time, at the disposal of their party." The other 
members of the Iowa delegation had returned to 
their homes and so he was left alone to perform 
a service which, to use his own words, "was 
extremely irksome, both on account of the per- 



THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR 161 

plexing struggle of numerous Republican 
friends, with each other, for every available of- 
fice, and the belief of each of them that I could 
settle the question of who should be honored in 
each case, in his favor, with a single word!" 
Moreover, in view of the desperate condition of 
National affairs "this pressure for office, 
seemed almost sacrilegious. But it was per- 
fectly obvious that, in a large degree, the 
welfare of the Government demanded that the 
officials should be changed as rapidly as prac- 
ticable. The number of disloyal incumbents in 
each of the Government Departments was 
frightful. And the querulousness of disap- 
pointed aspirants was simply dreadful. "^^^ 

An instance of the embarrassments attendant 
upon the duty of securing official appointments 
is to be found in a letter which Harlan received 
from James F. Wilson of Fairfield, Iowa, who 
was at that time a State Senator. ' ' I have just 
learned, to my mortification," wrote Wilson, 
**that Senators Grimes and Harlan have 
slaughtered the only applicant for office whose 
appointment was specially asked for by me. 
. . . I asked for nothing for myself. I was 
content with asking a poor, little $600 position 
for a friend. I had a right to expect that my 
request would meet with some favor at your 
hands." This right he based on the fact that 
he had supported Harlan since 1854, and had, 

11 



162 JAMES HARLAN 

he claimed, been the deciding factor in secur- 
ing Harlan's nomination for the senatorship 
in 1855. He charged Harlan with filling offices 
with his own relatives and with granting special 
favors to his neighbors in Mt. Pleasant. "I see 
no excuse for your action", wrote Wilson in 
conclusion. ''You have started on exactly the 
wrong road to give satisfaction to the party and 
thereby strengthen it. The quicker another 
road is taken the better for the party, "^os 

Harlan replied with characteristic directness, 
declaring that he had not supposed that his 
acceptance of Mr. Wilson's support carried with 
it any special personal obligation. In the mat- 
ter of appointments he had endeavored to serve 
the best interests of the country, and by this 
principle he would continue to be governed, no 
matter what were the consequences. ''You 
must allow me to say in conclusion", he wrote, 
"that it would be very foolish for you and me 
to cultivate the spirit that pervades your letter. 
If I cannot get along pleasantly without friends, 
neither can you."^*^'^ 

Senator Harlan spent the greater part of the 
interim between sessions of Congress at his 
home in Mt. Pleasant, but not in rest and peace. 
Office-seekers swelled his mail to large propor- 
tions and came down upon him in swarms. To 
add to his anxieties the inevitableness of war 
and the burden of increased senatorial responsi- 



THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR 163 

bilities gave him keen solicitude. On April 12th 
the bombardment of Fort Sumter began and 
thirty-four hours later the flag was hauled down 
from its walls. The blow had been struck and 
the war had begun. The President's proclama- 
tion of April 15th left no further doubt in men's 
minds as to which horn of Douglas's three- 
horned dilemma had been accepted. The call to 
arms aroused the North and brought its loyal 
men to a full realization of the dread certainty 
of war. Congress was summoned to convene in 
extra session on July 4th '*to consider and de- 
termine such measures as, in their wisdom, the 
public safety and interests may seem to de- 
mand. "^^^ 

The proclamation of the President called for 
immediate action, and Congress was prompt to 
respond. The time for recrimination, explana- 
tion, appeal, and compromise was past. The 
flag had been fired upon, the representatives of 
the Carolinas and the Gulf States had with- 
drawn from Congress, and the States they rep- 
resented had passed ordinances of secession. 
Nothing remained but to yield or fight, to put 
down the rebellion or let the southern States 
depart in peace. The proclamations issued by 
Lincoln had revealed the spirit and purpose of 
the President; the response of Congress left 
no doubt of the patriotism of the National 
legislature. The war measures enacted at the 



164 JAMES HARLAN 

special session of 1861 are well known, and they 
indicate that Congress comprehended, more 
clearly than did the masses, the seriousness of 
the struggle. In the enactment of these meas- 
ures James Harlan bore his full share, not so 
much in speeches on the floor as in the more 
quiet work of the committees. He was ever an 
advocate of vigorous measures for the sup- 
pression of the rebellion. 

After the adjournment of Congress early in 
August, 1861, Senator Harlan engaged in the 
organization of Iowa troops. To him more than 
to any other man belongs the credit of creating 
the Fourth Iowa Cavalry, which was organized 
in excess of Iowa's quota and was equipped and 
sent to the front by special order of the Secre- 
tary of War, in response to Harlan's personal 
request. In fact the first headquarters of the 
regiment near Mt. Pleasant was called '^Camp 
Harlan" in his honor.^*^^ Harlan had two 
special reasons for urging the organization of 
this cavalry regiment. In the first place, it was 
his belief that the North should recruit its 
cavalry largely from the frontier regions where 
good horsemanship was almost a necessity. In 
the second place, in view of the hard times and 
the fact that army supplies were largely pur- 
chased in the East, he was desirous that the 
people of Iowa should receive the benefit to be 
derived from the sale of cavalry horses.^^^ 



XVII 

The Legislation of 1861-1862 

The second session of the Thirty-seventh Con- 
gress witnessed the passage of at least three 
important measures which the Republicans had 
for years been advocating, namely: the Home- 
stead Bill, the bill granting land for the encour- 
agement of Agricultural Colleges, and the 
Pacific Railroad Bill. This was the first regular 
session of Congress in which the Republicans 
had a majority in both houses, and in which they 
were not subject to the veto of a Democratic 
President. Consequently they seized the first 
opportunity to secure the enactment of Repub- 
lican legislation, much of which, as will be 
noticed, was distinctly western in character. In 
the debates and committee work on the three 
bills already mentioned Senator Harlan was 
recognized as a leader, and he took a prominent 
part in the passage of many of the war meas- 
ures and minor bills of the session. He retained 
the important position of chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Public Lands and his membership on 
the Committee on Printing, and in addition was 

165 



166 JAMES HARLAN 

made a member of the Committee on Indian 
Affairs. 

Harlan's efforts in support of the Homestead 
Bill were put forth largely in the Committee on 
Public Lands. He took almost no part in the 
debate on the bill except to explain features of 
the bill not clearly understood and to report 
from time to time on behalf of his committee. 
But his interest in the subject is evinced by the 
fact that at the very beginning of the session he 
introduced a bill ''to secure homesteads to 
actual settlers on the public domain". When, 
however, it appeared that a similar bill intro- 
duced in the House met with greater favor he 
was willing to have his own bill withdrawn from 
consideration. After several amendments the 
House bill passed and was signed by Lincoln.^" 

The Pacific Railroad Bill, on the other hand, 
enlisted Senator Harlan's active participation, 
both on the floor of the Senate and in the special 
committee of which he was a member. When 
the bill was introduced he endeavored to have it 
referred to the Committee on Public Lands, but 
without success. However, his position on the 
special committee appointed to consider the 
measure, enabled him to exercise the guidance 
over the bill which was needed in order to recon- 
cile all of the conflicting interests. Although he 
was not chairman of the committee, full charge 
of the bill was accorded to him by his associates. 



THE LEGISLATION OF 1861-1862 167 

The discussion of the Pacific Railroad Bill 
took the form of a battle of amendments, many 
of which were clearly intended to secure special 
favors for particular localities. It was to make 
the road minister to the needs of the whole 
country that Harlan labored. To this end he 
advocated building the road along the Platte 
River and the placing of the eastern terminus 
near Fort Kearney or even on the Missouri 
River, instead of on the one hundredth merid- 
ian, as the bill provided. The route and 
terminus which he suggested would be central 
and consequently of equal advantage to all of 
the States affected. Besides, the farther east 
the eastern terminus was placed the less road 
the various lines already running westward 
would have to build to connect with it. To place 
the terminus, for instance, as had been pro- 
posed, near the mouth of the Kansas River 
would be a discrimination in favor of the rail- 
road running through Missouri, and would 
seriously endanger the enormous investments 
of money in lines of railroad lying further to 
the north. 

In order that all sections and all the railroads 
might secure equal advantages in the building 
of the new road, he favored the proposal for a 
number of branches, emanating from points in 
Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, and 
converging at the terminus of the Pacific Rail- 



IQg JAMES HARLAN 

road. ''I think it would be wrong", lie said, 
''for a great nation to invest fifty or more 
million dollars in an enterprise, and so invest 
that money as to necessarily depreciate hun- 
dreds of millions of capital already invested in 
similar enterprises, when by advancing the 
credit of the Government to a very small 
amount, this capital may not be depreciated, 
and when all these companies, and the gentle- 
men who are represented by these companies, 
and their money may be put on a platform of 
equality, and an equilibrium be secured." He 
called upon eastern as well as western Senators 
to support his views, on the ground that it was 
not a local question. It was chiefly a question 
of convenience to the people of Iowa, or Mis- 
souri, or Kansas; while the capital which had 
built the roads so vitally interested in the loca- 
tion of the Pacific Eailroad came largely from 
the East.212 

While the bill as finally passed left the eastern 
terminus at some point on the one hundredth 
meridian to be designated by the President, it 
did embody the provision for branch connecting 
lines which Harlan had so ably championed. 
Furthermore, the Platte River route was the 
one stipulated. Thus, in the enactment of this 
measure which meant so much to the commerce 
and prosperity of the whole Nation, Senator 
Harlan played a creditable and influential part. 



THE LEGISLATION OF 1861-1862 169 

The third great measure which the Repub- 
licans, especially those from the West, had 
for several years been endeavoring to pass was 
a bill granting land for the encouragement of 
agricultural colleges. Bills were introduced in 
both houses during this session, but the one 
which was finally adopted was that introduced 
by Representative Justin S. Morrill of Vermont. 
From first to last Harlan gave this bill his 
hearty support. He defended it against the 
charge of unfairness made by Senator James 
H. Lane of Kansas on the ground that it dis- 
criminated against the newer States. He also 
pointed out the fact that liberal grants of land 
had been made for universities throughout the 
country. "The proceeds of the sale of those 
lands have usually gone to educate the children 
of professional men — men who are able to de- 
fray the expense of the education of their 
children away from home, in classical studies 
and in the learned professions. Here .... 
a proposition is made to make an appropriation 
of lands for the education of the children of the 
agriculturists of the nation, and it meets with 
strenuous opposition from a body of la^vyers." 
He believed that if the proposition were sub- 
mitted to a vote of the people not one fiftieth of 
them would vote against it.^^^ In the end 
Harlan had the satisfaction of witnessing the 
passage of the bill by an overwhelming vote. 



170 JAMES HARLAN 

Alongside the discussion of these measures of 
far-reaching importance in the development of 
the West came the various problems growing 
out of the prosecution of the war. Among these 
problems was the attitude which the Govern- 
ment should take toward the negroes, and espe- 
cially at this time toward those w^ho were 
coming in large numbers to the Union lines. 
Senator Harlan was prominent among those 
members of Congress who advocated arming the 
negroes and employing them in the suppression 
of the rebellion. 

Harlan first expressed his sentiments on the 
subject of allowing negroes to bear arms on 
January 15, 1862, in connection with a resolu- 
tion to promote the efficiency of the troops in 
Kansas. He dissented from the views ex- 
pressed by several Senators that negroes should 
not be employed in the Union armies, or at least 
not in bearing arms. ^'Why may not their 
bodies be made food for powder and lead", he 
asked, "as well as those of your sons and 
brothers ? It may be said that their enlistment 
would be offensive to the people of the slave 
States. But why offensive to employ colored 
men to fight for the Union any more than for 
independence during the Revolution? . . . . 
We are now engaged in an actual war, and I 
repudiate that kind of wisdom which would 
compel the Government of the United States to 



THE LEGISLATION OP 1861-1862 171 

consult the wishes of our enemies as to the 
character of the force that is to be used to put 
them down." He did not, however, advocate 
arming the negroes indiscriminately. They 
should be mustered, organized, and disciplined 
in the same manner as white troops.^^* 

A few days later Harlan found another oc- 
casion to express his views on the subject. ''I 
maintained that the Government had the right 
to the services of the slave man", he declared, 
in explanation of his previous remarks, ''as 
much as to the son of the free man under 
twenty-one years of age, and if we sanction 
the policy of taking the children of free white 
people under the age of twenty-one years, 
and, regardless of the wishes of their fathers, 
placing them in the armies of the United 
States, you may take the slave of the slave- 
holder and place him in the service of the 
Government regardless of the wishes of the 
slaveholder. He can have no stronger title to 
the services of his slave than the father has to 
the services of his own minor son". This argu- 
ment was meant to apply to the loyal slave- 
holders, for he maintained that rebel slave- 
holders had no rights in this connection which 
the Government was bound to consider. The 
policy of arming and employing natives had 
been adopted by England and all other nations 
which had been successful.^^^ 



172 JAMES HARLAN 

Late in June, together with several other 
Senators, Harlan called upon President Lincoln 
to interview him upon the question of the ad- 
visability of arming the negroes. Lincoln 
listened to what each interviewer had to say, 
and then replied that he did not see his way 
clear to follow their advice at that time. He 
feared that such a policy would result in driv- 
ing into the Confederate ranks great numbers 
of Union men in the border States and in the 
South, and would harm the Union cause.- ^"^ 

''I did not concur with him in opinion as to 
the magnitude of the danger he apprehended", 
writes Harlan. Consequently he decided to dis- 
cuss the whole question carefully in the Senate. 
On July 11th he delivered a speech, which, he 
declares, was intended as much for the Presi- 
dent as for his associates in the Senate. It was 
an elaborate argument in favor not only of 
arming the negroes but also of emancipating 
them.^^'^ "Whether, or not, it had any influence 
on the President's mind, is not for me to say," 
was Harlan's comment later in life, "for the 
reason that I do not know. But on the 22nd 
day of the following September he issued his 
preliminary proclamation of emancipation of 
the slaves of all people in rebellion against the 
Government of the United States to take effect 
January 1st, 1863, provided the rebels should 
not, in the meantime, lay down their arms."-^^ 



THE LEGISLATION OF 1861-1862 173 

An error into which Senator Harlan, in com- 
mon with many other statesmen, fell was in his 
condemnation of General Grant after the Battle 
of Shiloh. On May 9th a resolution was intro- 
duced calling for copies of all the official reports 
relating to the battles at Pittsburg Landing. 
In the debate on this resolution Senator John 
Sherman of Ohio defended the good name of 
the troops from his State engaged in the battle, 
and also sought to free Grant from the blame 
that was being heaped upon him. 

Harlan was entirely willing that Senator 
Sherman should defend the Ohio troops. 
**But", he declared, ''that part of his speech 
which may have been intended to bolster up the 
reputation of General Grant I think may have 
an injurious effect in the future, and hence I 
rise to repudiate every word he has said that 
may have that tendency. From all I can learn 
on the subject, I do not think General Grant is 
fit to command a great army in the field. Iowa 
had eleven regiments in the field at the battle of 
Pittsburg Landing .... I have seen many 
of them, have conversed with the officers and 
privates, and they believe that our army was 
surprised." In conclusion he declared that 
''with such a record, those who continue 
General Grant in active command will, in my 
opinion, carry on their skirts the blood of thou- 
sands of their slaughtered countrymen. "^^^ 



174 JAMES HARLAN 

In the light of General Grant's later career 
and of accurate information, gathered later, 
concerning the Battle of Shiloh, Senator Har- 
lan's bitter denunciation seems harsh and 
unjust. But it must be remembered that he 
voiced the attitude of an overwhelming majority 
of the people, especially of the West which 
furnished nearly all the Union troops in the 
battle. In Congress, Representative Elihu B. 
Washburne and Senator John Sherman alone 
were willing to defend Grant, and it was only 
Lincoln's persistent faith in his general which 
prevented him from yielding to the great pres- 
sure for Grant's removal.^^o 

Two bills relative to the District of Columbia 
claimed a share of Harlan's time and attention. 
One was the bill for the emancipation of the 
slaves in the District, of which Harlan was, of 
course, heartily in favor. He ridiculed the idea 
that a war of extermination would result from 
such an act, as some Senators seemed to fear.^^^ 
To a bill relating to the administration of crim- 
inal justice in the District he offered an amend- 
ment prohibiting imprisonment for debt, 
whether payable in money, in services, or other- 
wise.^-^ 

Presenting and looking after petitions from 
his constituents in Iowa, as usual, took much of 
Senator Harlan's time during this session. 
Among the things asked for was the establish- 



THE LEGISLATION OF 1861-1862 175 

ment of a national armory at Rock Island, 
Illinois. One of the petitions on this subject 
was signed by "J. B. Grinnell and one hundred 
and forty-four others, citizens of Grinnell, 
lowa".^^^ From Davenport came *'a petition 
of Hon. John F. Dillon, and six hundred and 
fifty others", asking for the abolition of 
slavery ;22* and there were many other petitions 
of a similar character. The construction of a 
ship canal from Lake Michigan to the Missis- 
sippi River was another project which Congress 
was asked to encourage by appropriations.^^*^ 



XVIII 

The Years of Gloom 

It was just at the close of the second session 
of the Thirty-seventh Congress in July, 1862, 
that Samuel Freeman Miller of Iowa, the first 
member selected from the region west of the 
Mississippi River, received his appointment as 
a member of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. "I think he was indebted to me," 
writes Harlan, ''more than to any one man 
living, for this great distinction. He frequently 
said to his intimate friends that if it had not 
been for me, he never would have been appoint- 
ed. .. . It was a unique appointment. He 
had never before held any office, local. State, or 
national ; and had not been in the active practice 
as a lawyer over twelve years. "^^^ 

Senator Harlan, however, was well acquaint- 
ed with Samuel F. Miller and knew him to be a 
staunch Republican and an able lawyer. 
Furthermore, in view of the three vacancies 
then existing in the Supreme Court, he felt that 
at least one appointment should be bestowed 
upon a man representing the region west of the 

176 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 177 

Mississippi River. Consequently he drew up a 
paper of recommendation to which he secured 
the signatures of nearly all his colleagues in 
the Senate. Armed with these recommenda- 
tions and with a similar list from the House of 
Representatives, he called upon the President 
and urged Miller's appointment. Lincoln gave 
no definite answer at the time, but shortly after- 
ward he communicated the desired appointment 
to the Senate, where it was promptly con- 
firmed.227 rpj^^ brilliant career of Samuel 
Freeman Miller on the Supreme Bench testifies 
to the wisdom of the choice. 

The third session of the Thirty- seventh Con- 
gress which convened on the first day of 
December, 1862, was not a session of notable 
legislation. The war hung heavily on men's 
hearts and minds and Congress was more in- 
clined to attend to laws of immediate necessity 
than to urge measures which looked to the 
future. 

Thus it was that, although his activities dur- 
ing this session covered a wide range of 
subjects, Senator Harlan made no lengthy 
speeches. His thorough study of public ques- 
tions and his gift of clear statement, however, 
enabled him to exercise a salutary influence in 
the enactment of many laws. The discussion of 
the bankrupt law brought from him an amend- 
ment the effect of which was to maintain the 

12 



178 JAMES HARLAN 

validity of claims for personal services.^^^ In 
the course of the debate on a bill to establish a 
new Court of Claims he succeeded in elimi- 
nating certain disagreeable features.^^'^ The 
subject of medical treatment in the army was 
one on which he possessed first-hand informa- 
tion through the experiences and observations 
of Mrs. Harlan in her ministrations to sick and 
wounded soldiers. He was able, therefore, to 
make suggestions which aided in increasing the 
efficiency of this branch of the service.^^*^ 

Legislation concerning the Indians gave 
Harlan opportunity to state his policy relative 
to this vanishing race. He favored removing 
the Indians from regions where their presence 
was the cause of trouble both to themselves and 
to the whites. At the same time he advocated 
a liberal and honest Indian policy.^^i 

In the debate on the bill to suspend the writ 
of habeas corpus Senator Powell brought 
charges against the President for violation of 
the Constitution. Harlan insisted that it was 
not within the power of a Senator to arraign 
the President on such grounds.^^^ Ti^e bills to 
fix the gauge of the Pacific Railroad and to 
amend the bill by which the road had been estab- 
lished again brought into play that detailed 
knowledge which had enabled Senator Harlan 
to be such a prominent factor in the drafting of 
the original bill.-^^ 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 179 

The correspondence of Senator Harlan dur- 
ing this period reflects the gloom brooding over 
the country and the dissatisfaction with the 
manner in which the war was being prosecuted, 
even among those who were most loyal in sup- 
port of the Government. ' ' I think we are much 
weaker than we were six months ago ' ', came the 
pessimistic warning from Tipton, Iowa. ''The 
causes of this decrease of strength could not all 
be named in one letter. The 'do nothing policy' 
of most of our commanders has had much to do 
with it. The Administration is held responsible 
for what is done as well as for what is not done 
and still it keeps in power those who love 
slavery better than they love the Union. . . . 
The President's remark, that 'military success 
was what the country needs' is true, and those 
successes must soon come or we shall have no 
country. ' ' 

" 'The Knights of the Golden Circle' or the 
'Home League,' or whatever their name may be 
are holding weekly meetings in this section," 
continued the writer, "and I suppose through- 
out the North. Just what their objects are I 
cannot say but that they are organizing for a 
resistance to the Government I fully believe. 
. . . Democratic papers are talking treason 
and Democrats in our streets are wishing that 
our forces may be defeated. ... I may be 
mistaken, and I hope I am, but I believe that 



180 JAMES HARLAN 

nothing but immediate and continued success on 
the part of our armies can save us from an out- 
break at the North, and I feel that the Adminis- 
tration should know it."^^* 

This long and earnest letter is only a fair 
sample of many others received from Iowa and 
all sections of the North, indicating clearly the 
general anxiety for the safety of the Nation. 
And it must be admitted that there was little to 
inspire confidence on the part of the people, 
when commanders proved incompetent, great 
armies were left inactive, and there was even 
lack of harmony in the President's Cabinet. 

The letters which poured into Senator Har- 
lan's office day after day also reveal the great 
pressure for appointments to positions, both 
civil and military. And not only were there 
requests and demands for positions, but often 
the Senator's inability to secure the desired 
appointments met with ingratitude and resent- 
ment. *'I thought I might rely on your atten- 
tion to my interest," wrote a disappointed 
office-seeker, ''when I wrote last winter . . . . 
on the score of past friendship & sympathy, 
shown you when you were poor & out of place, 
at Iowa City, setting fence along with Mr. Crum 
& myself. . . . Now do you wish to alienate 
an old friend who has stood by you for years. 
Must I give you up & cast my influence against 
you, when by & by you will need it, or be cast 



i 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 181 

out of Congress? "2^^ Occasionally, when dis- 
courtesy reached the limit of endurance, the 
Senator replied in no uncertain terms. ''I 
fancy anyone can when he chooses take care of 
his enemies", he told a complaining officeholder 
whom he had repeatedly recommended and de- 
fended. ''But disparagement by a friend for 
whose advancement one has labored must be as 
you know extremely distasteful. "^^'^ 

A part of the summer of 1863 was spent by 
Harlan in Iowa, where he was drafted into ser- 
vice as a speaker in the political campaign. He 
then returned to Washington to plunge once 
more into the grinding labor of a long session 
of Congress. 

The first bill of general interest to claim 
Senator Harlan's attention was the Conscrip- 
tion Act. He argued that the Government 
should compel a drafted man to go to war, or 
pay enough money to procure a substitute of 
equal ability to his own. He would not agree 
to permit a man to release himself from service 
simply by paying the hire of an inferior man. 
Consequently he opposed the proposition to al- 
low white men to secure negroes as substitutes 
on terms of equality, for he insisted that the 
negro was not as good a soldier as the white 
man.^^'^ 

A bill making a grant of land to the State of 
Iowa to aid in the construction of a railroad 



182 JAMES HARLAN 

from McGregor to some point on the Missouri 
River, and several other land grants for the 
benefit of western States demanded much care- 
ful investigation in the Committee on Public 
Lands and much explanation on the floor of the 
Senate. Page after page of the Congressional 
Globe is filled with tedious debate on technical 
points and on questions arising from the jeal- 
ousy of individual and local interests.^^^ 
Harlan's conservative attitude toward these 
land grants is shown by the fact that his bill for 
the road west from McGregor ''only allowed 
the Railroad Company coterminus sections of 
land to road actually built, thus compelling them 
to build one hundred and fifty miles or more of 
road before they could get any lands. "^^^ 

The longest speech made by Senator Harlan 
during this session was on the proposed amend- 
ment to the Constitution abolishing slavery. 
The main part of his argument was his con- 
tention that title in slaves was not valid. In the 
first place, the method in which slavery orig- 
inated disproved the legality of the owner's 
title. But granting that the slave-holder had 
the right to the services of his slaves, that did 
not give him the right to the services of the 
children of slaves after they had reached their 
majority. Even a father could not demand the 
services of a child after the period of minority. 
Neither did the color of the slave nor the 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 183 

superiority of the white race form any justi- 
fication for slavery. Furthermore, title in 
slaves could not be defended on the ground that 
the negroes were incapable of caring for them- 
selves and needed guardianship. In States 
where there were free negroes they had demon- 
strated their ability to make their own living, 
and the capacity of the race for government was 
exhibited in the Liberian colony. 

Since, therefore, there was no adequate justi- 
fication for ownership in slaves '* either in 
reason, natural justice, or the principles of the 
common law, or in any positive municipal or 
statute regulation of any State", was it desir- 
able or expedient to perpetuate the institution 
of slavery? To prove that it was not desirable 
Senator Harlan proceeded to name the evils 
which slavery entailed. It abolished the con- 
jugal and parental relations and the relation of 
person to property. It deprived the slaves of 
any status in court and of the right to 'Hhe 
common sympathies of the human race". It 
suppressed freedom of speech and the press, 
required the continued ignorance of its victims, 
and impoverished the country in which it ex- 
isted. 

On the other hand, there were a number of 
decided benefits which would result from the 
adoption of the proposed amendment to the 
Constitution. In the first place * ' the wealth and 



184 JAMES HARLAN 

prosperity of slaveholders would be augmented 
by a change of their system of labor from com- 
pulsory to voluntary." Then, the abolition of 
slavery would increase the military strength of 
the Nation, and at the same time it would secure 
the sympathy and support of the Nations of the 
Old "World. In view of all these facts "the 
Senate of the United States ought not to hesi- 
tate to take the action necessary to enable the 
people of the States to terminate" forever the 
existence of slavery .^^^ 

While James Harlan was firm in his advocacy 
of the abolition of slavery his freedom from 
radicalism in his attitude toward the negro is 
seen in his remarks on another bill during this 
session. This was a bill to amend the charter of 
the city of Washington in respect to elections 
so as to require the registration of voters. 
Harlan declared that he would vote for an 
amendment to the bill limiting the suffrage to 
white male citizens, because he was convinced 
that the bill would not otherwise be passed at 
that time, and its passage was very necessary. 
Furthermore, he argued that the right to vote 
was not a natural right, that it was denied white 
women and minors, and therefore it was not 
unjust to exclude negroes. ''No one can deny, 
I think," he said in conclusion, "that a very 
large proportion of the people in some of the 
States who have been held as slaves for a cen- 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 185 

tury or more could not be safely trusted with 
the enjoyment of this right. I think that this 
cannot be doubted; and if not, we ought not to 
insist on the incorporation of such a provision 
in an amendment to the election laws for this 
District, where there are strong prejudices 
against the modification of the election laws in 
this respect ".^■*^ 

The Pacific Eailroad bill again came up for 
amendment and, as in previous sessions, Harlan 
took a prominent part.^^^ The bill to establish 
a Freedmen's Bureau and various other bills of 
minor importance enlisted his attention during 
the anxious months of 1864. The Senate ad- 
journed on July 4th and the presiding officer 
expressed the hope that before they assembled 
again the clouds which had lowered over the 
Nation might be lifted — a hope nearer fulfil- 
ment than many dared dream. 

Senator Harlan's influence with President 
Lincoln seems by this time to have been quite 
generally recognized, for the Senator received 
numerous letters urging him to call upon 
Lincoln, not only in support of office-seekers, 
but also for the purpose of giving the President 
counsel and advice on various subjects.^ ^^ 
While he was a firm friend and admirer of 
Lincoln, Harlan was, nevertheless, not blind to 
the President 's shortcomings. ' ' I wish he could 
be induced to be more careful in his appoint- 



186 JAMES HARLAN 

ments ' ', Harlan wrote confidentially to William 
Penn Clarke in April, 1864. ''It is a terrible 
shame that his real friends — the friends of the 
vital elements that brought him into power, 
have to fight the influence of his administration, 
and the pro-slavery element combined, or 
jointly. "2<* 

The presidential campaign of 1864 found 
Senator Harlan entrusted with the affairs of 
the Republican Congressional Committee, with 
headquarters at Washington. From references 
made in newspaper correspondence it is evident 
that under his vigorous management large 
quantities of printed matter found their way to 
all parts of the North.^^s 

A resolution, introduced by himself, instruct- 
ing the Committee on the District of Columbia 
to inquire into the expediency of requiring all 
residents of the District to take an oath of 
allegiance to the Government was the first sub- 
ject on which Harlan made any extended 
remarks during the second session of the 
Thirty-eighth Congress. The resolution also 
contemplated prohibiting all persons who failed 
to take the oath from doing business within the 
District. In response to objections that such a 
measure would be an unwarrantable act of op- 
pression, Harlan argued that the proposition 
was not an unusual one and that it was not a 
reflection upon the people of the District. 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 187 

Citizens everywhere submit voluntarily to a 
search, he declared, in order that a thief may be 
tracked down and stolen goods recovered, but 
such a search does not implicate the great mass 
of the people in the robbery. The law required 
members of Congress to take the oath of alle- 
giance, not because any considerable number of 
them were supposed to lack fidelity, but because 
a few might present themselves who were un- 
worthy of the trust. On this same principle the 
law might very well be extended to cover all the 
citizens of the District. "We all know", he 
said, ''that there are people living in this Dis- 
trict who are not only in sympathy with the 
rebellion, but who embrace every available 
opportunity to aid the rebels in arms against 
their Government". Therefore, he believed 
that the loyal people of the District ''would 
thank Congress for the adoption of any measure 
calculated to drive from their midst aiders and 
abettors of the rebellion. "^^^ The resolution 
was adopted, but no act on the subject seems to 
have been passed. 

A resolution advising retaliation for the cruel 
treatment of prisoners by rebels by means of a 
refusal to make any further exchanges of 
prisoners gave Senator Harlan an opportunity 
to express his views as to the vigorous measures 
needed to bring the war to a close. "Some 
three years ago", he said, "I wrote a letter. 



188 JAMES HARLAN 

and presented it to other Senators for their sig- 
natures, requesting the President to exchange 
prisoners with the rebels. I then believed that 
it was politic. Our condition has changed 
vastly since that time. The rebels are no longer 
able to meet us in the open field. Their armed 
soldiers fight us now almost exclusively behind 
their works and in strong fortifications. Mili- 
tary men tell us that it requires at least four 
men outside to take one inside a fort." There- 
fore, it would require four Union soldiers to 
recapture or overcome each Confederate who 
was exchanged and returned to the rebel ranks. 
He maintained, in the face of charges of cruelty, 
that it would be more humane to allow northern 
men to remain a little longer in southern prisons 
than to expose four times their number to the 
perils of storming Confederate strongholds. 

Furthermore, he pointed out the fact that the 
Confederates invariably exchanged men whose 
terms of service had expired or who were so 
weakened by cruel treatment as to be unfit for 
military service. In view of this condition he 
favored a cessation of the exchange of prison- 
ers, and he would treat rebel prisoners not 
cruelly or in a revengeful spirit, but in such a 
manner as to force the Confederate authorities 
to observe the rules of civilized warfare. This 
policy might be objected to as inhuman and 
retaliatory, but the very nature of war was re- 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 189 

taliatory, and in the present instance it seemed 
the only method of securing fair treatment for 
Union men in the hands of the rebels.^^"^ 

In the discussion of an amendment to the en- 
rollment or conscription acts Harlan was one 
of a very few Senators who favored requiring 
every man who secured a substitute and release 
from service to pay a sum of money proportion- 
ate to his means, according to a fixed sliding 
scale. It was the man that was wanted and not 
the money, and therefore it should be made 
equally inconvenient for men, whether rich or 
poor, to evade service in the army when 
drafted.24« 

A further insight into Harlan's view on 
Indian policy may be found in the debate on 
various bills during this session. In January, 
in discussing the recent massacre of some 
Cheyenne Indians, the Senator protested vigor- 
ously against what seemed to him a change in 
the policy of the Government from one of 
paternal kindness to one of deliberate exter- 
mination.2^^ Later he advocated consolidating 
the Indian tribes and placing them together on 
lands where they could prosper and at the same 
time be protected against unscrupulous white 
traders. This removal should be effected, how- 
ever, not by force, but by treating the Indians 
as being with rights and volition of their own, 
and by showing them that it would be to their 



190 JAMES HARLAN 

interests to remove. Unless some such policy 
was adopted he could see no means of saving 
from extinction this race of people which was 
''wasting away rapidly now like the snows be- 
fore a morning's sun''.^^*^ 

At this stage in his career, when his activities 
were soon to be transferred for a short time to 
another arena, it is interesting to note Harlan's 
estimate of his own accomplishments as a Sen- 
ator. In response to a request from L. D. 
Ingersoll, one of Iowa's war correspondents and 
historians, he hurriedly wrote: 

I cannot think I have effected much worth record- 
ing. I suppose, however, that I have had more 
influence in the Senate and on the public mind in 
securing the freedom of the Territories than on any 
other subject. I have discussed the subject in all its 
bearings more thoroughly than any other Senator or 
I\Iember in Congress. There is no phase of the question 
which I have not examined and presented somewhat 
elaborately — the effects of Slavery on morals, social 
intercourse, on the Military and financial strength of 
the country, on the development of intellect, literature, 
arts, commerce. The question of its alleged necessity 
in certain latitudes — capacity of white men to endure 
tropical heats. The consequences of the liberation of 
the slave to himself and society — what is to be done 
with him as a free man &c. including the question of 
suffrage. 

I have also labored on the subject of Gov. Bounty to 
Railroad enterprises — did perhaps more than any 



THE YEARS OF GLOOM 191 

other one person in licking into shape the Pacific Rail- 
road Bills. 

Have brought to the attention of the country the 
enormous frauds and injuries inflicted on the Indian 
tribes &c. 

Have been one of the leading advocates of every 
prudent measure calculated to develop agricultural 
interests, &c.2»i 

A study of the Congressional Globe from 1855 
to 1865 must convince the impartial student 
that Senator Harlan's somewhat self-com- 
placent memorandum, prepared at the solicita- 
tion of a friend, is fully substantiated by the 
record. 



XIX 

Seceetaey of the Interioe 

The resignation of William Pitt Fessenden as 
Secretary of the Treasury, long foreseen by 
President Lincoln, led to the selection of Hugh 
McCulloch of Indiana as his successor. This 
change in the Cabinet was followed by the 
resignation of John P. Usher of Indiana, pre- 
sumably at the suggestion of the President, 
from the Secretaryship of the Interior. 
Lincoln promptly appointed James Harlan to 
fill the vacancy thus occasioned and the Senate 
as promptly confirmed the nomination, both 
appointment and confirmation occurring on 
March 9, 1865.2^2 

That James Harlan had long and seriously 
considered the probability of a call from Presi- 
dent Lincoln to serve in his Cabinet is evident 
from a letter written early in January to James 
Wright, then Secretary of State in Iowa. "If 
Governor Grimes desires the position of Secre- 
tary of the Navy," Harlan writes, "I would 
rejoice to see him in that position — but not 
otherwise. If the position of Secretary of the 

192 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 193 

Interior should be formally tendered to me by 
the President, I would then consider seriously 
the question of my duty in the premises. If I 
should conclude that I would be more useful to 
my country in that position, than in the one I 
now hold, I w^ould resign the latter and accept 
the former; but I would not, I think, permit 
personal considerations to influence me in the 
least. "2°3 

Not only was the possibility of an appoint- 
ment to the Department of the Interior con- 
sidered in advance by Senator Harlan, but it 
was quite generally known and discussed at 
Washington and in Iowa. As early as Decem- 
ber 22, 1864, the Ottumiva Courier referred to 
the report that Harlan was to be transferred 
from the Senate to the Cabinet. The editor 
declared that "nothing could be more gratifying 
to the friends of the Administration in Iowa, as 
it would be complimentary to the State, well 
deserved, and would be appreciated." A few 
weeks later a Washington correspondent to the 
same newspaper stated that it was a foregone 
conclusion in Washington that the position 
would be tendered to Harlan. While he ad- 
mitted Harlan's eminent fitness for the office, 
he felt that the country would greatly deplore 
the loss of his services in the Senate "until the 
flag of our country waves in triumph over every 
foot of our territory, and the last human fetter 

13 



194 JAMES HARLAN 

be fallen, and the crack of the slave whip be no 
more heard in the land".^^* 

The letters which Harlan received from Iowa 
during the early months of 1865 breathe a 
spirit of mingled congratulation and regret. 
''I was gratified only on the supposition that 
such a change was grateful to you", wrote a 
Des Moines editor early in February .^^^ ''I 
sincerely hope this is not so", wrote J. H. 
Powers from New Hampton a few weeks later 
in referring to the rumor of the appointment. 
''Not that I object to your receiving the honor 
but that your vacancy will open a door to 
scheming politicians that are entirely unworthy 
of the position so long and so honorably held by 
you. We have been working hard, in our 
humble way, for a year for your return and 
have kept much of the dirt out of our part of 
the State that has so disgraced our politicks the 
last year or two, and if you leave us where shall 
we rally r '256 

"I would much prefer to remain the residue 
of my term of two years in the Senate, ' ' wrote 
Harlan in reply to Powers, "than to serve in 
the Cabinet. Nothing but a sense of public duty 
would induce me to change. There is however 
a pressing necessity for a renovation in the 
Interior Department which may possibly con- 
trol my decision, contrary to my own personal 
wishes. "2^"^ 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 195 

After the appointment had been made and 
had become generally known, the flood of con- 
gratulations greatly increased. And still there 
was discernible a touch of regret in nearly all 
the letters which came from Iowa. Harlan's 
constituents seemed entirely satisfied with the 
record he had made as Senator and had come to 
regard him as their special representative.^^^ 
A perusal of the Senator's voluminous cor- 
respondence during these months would seem to 
settle forever any question as to the disinter- 
ested motives which prompted Harlan to 
respond to President Lincoln's call. Clearly, he 
had no need to fear defeat for reelection to the 
Senate, for from the time he had first entered 
Congress he had never swayed from the line of 
duty and self-respect, and at no time thus far 
was his position actually endangered by the 
schemes of those who would supplant him. 

Even after his appointment had been con- 
firmed, however. Senator Harlan seems to have 
had considerable hesitancy. "I now intend to 
accept the office of Secretary of the Interior," 
he wrote to James F. Wilson late in March, 
*'if I find I can get the pack of thieves now 
preying on the Govt, under its auspices out of 
power, otherwise I will not. I do not deem it 
my duty to lend my name to plaster over their 
corruptions. The prospect of effecting this is 
not very good, for it happens that some of the 



196 JAMES HARLAN 

worst of these people have the President's con- 
fidence. "259 

During the years of the war the friendship 
between Lincoln and Harlan apparently deep- 
ened, in spite of the fact that the Senator was 
often a severe critic of the President's actions, 
for on public occasions Harlan was nearly 
always to be found in the presidential party. 
At the second inaugural on March 4, 1865, 
Senator Harlan was chosen as an escort for 
Mrs. Lincoln, and Miss Mary Harlan was 
among the distinguished group surrounding 
President and Mrs. Lincoln at the inaugural 
ball. *' Because Captain Eobert Lincoln es- 
corted Miss Harlan," wrote a reporter, ''it was 
supposed that Senator Harlan is to go into the 
Cabinet. "26« 

Senator Harlan was also intimately connected 
with the President on the occasion of his last 
public utterance. It was on the evening of the 
11th of April, three days before the assassina- 
tion. The President had informally announced 
that on that evening he would speak from the 
White House, and would state his views on 
Reconstruction. Several histories and biogra- 
phies refer to this speech as delivered to a party 
of callers at the White House; but, in fact, it 
was delivered before a large audience gathered 
in the mist and rain in front of the Executive 
Mansion. The writer, then a youth, has a vivid 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 197 

recollection of the event — the gloom of the 
night, the funereal aspect of the umbrella- 
canopied throng, the forced hilarity of many 
during the long wait for the President's ap- 
pearing, and the enthusiasm with which the 
audience followed the argument. 

When the President had ceased speaking 
there were calls for Senator Sumner, but he was 
not present. Then Harlan was loudly called 
for. The Iowa Senator soon appeared at the 
window and was introduced by the President as 
one who was soon to share with him the respon- 
sibilities of administration. He made a short 
speech in which he stated that two principles 
had been settled by the war then nearing its 
close, namely, that the American people had 
decided that a majority of the voters of the 
Republic should control its destinies, and that 
no part of the Republic should ever be per- 
mitted to secede. 

It would be needless in this connection to 
recount the sadly familiar story of the event of 
April 14, 1865, a tragedy which bowed the peo- 
ple of the Nation — South as well as North — 
under a common burden of sorrow. To James 
Harlan the assassination of President Lincoln 
was a blow from which entire recovery was 
impossible. Long years afterward the writer 
asked the Senator to contribute for a magazine 
his impressions of Abraham Lincoln and the 



198 JAMES HARLAN 

story of his intimate relations with the Presi- 
dent. He shook his head sadly and replied: 
**Not now — possibly later; but, remember, I 
make no promise. I fear I cannot trust myself 
to write on a subject so close to my heart." 

Senator Harlan's intimate personal friend- 
ship with Lincoln was recognized by his asso- 
ciates when he was chosen a member of a 
Congressional committee to escort the remains 
of the dead President to Springfield, Hlinois. 
A few weeks later he presided over a meeting 
of citizens held at the National Hotel in Wash- 
ington for the purpose of inaugurating a 
movement toward the erection of a monument 
to President Lincoln. An organization known 
as the ** Lincoln Monument Association" was 
formed and James Harlan was chosen presi- 
dent.261 

In the absence of any explicit declaration on 
the subject it is quite evident that the death of 
President Lincoln, with the grave uncertainty 
as to the nature and trend of the new adminis- 
tration, practically settled any remaining ques- 
tion in Harlan's mind as to his duty in regard 
to the secretaryship. **A terrible change has 
occurred," wrote Samuel E. Curtis, who earlier 
had opposed an acceptance of the Cabinet posi- 
tion, ''and it may be important in the current 
of events, that you should not refuse any place 
to which you may be assigned. My way has 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 199 

always been, to follow the way opened to me by 
Providence; and you should act in reference to 
what seems to be your destiny. "^62 This letter, 
together with others of a similar character, 
doubtless confirmed the Senator's conviction 
that he could best serve his country in this 
emergency by accepting the appointment, inas- 
much as President Johnson had expressed his 
desire that Harlan serve.^^^ 

On May 15, 1865, therefore, James Harlan 
assumed the duties of his new office. ^'The 
change in the Interior Department took place 
at noon to-day," ran the Washington cor- 
respondence in a New York newspaper, *' Judge 
Usher retiring and Mr. Harlan taking charge. 
The heads of bureaus and clerks assembled at 
the Secretary's office, and Judge Otto, on their 
behalf, presented to the retiring Secretary a 
farewell letter which was briefly and appropri- 
ately responded to by him. Subsequently they 
were introduced to the new Secretary, who 
greeted them kindly and cordially."-^* 

Before he had been in the Cabinet many 
months Harlan found himself called upon to 
defend President Johnson's reconstruction 
policy. Negro suffrage was one of the im- 
portant issues in Iowa in the campaign of 1865. 
The Eepublicans in their platform favored 
allowing negroes to vote, while the Democrats 
radically opposed it and at the same time 



200 JAMES HARLAN 

endorsed Johnson's administration, thereby 
assuming that the executive policy was antag- 
onistic to negro suffrage. Secretary Harlan 
believed that this state of affairs demanded a 
clear statement of the President's position. 
Consequently he wrote a letter to George B. 
Edwards which was published in the news- 
papers and which was accepted as a semi- 
official announcement of the Administration's 
policy. 

''The real question at issue, in a national 
point of view," wrote Harlan, *'is not whether 
negroes shall be permitted to vote, but whether 
they shall derive that authority from the 
National Government, or from the State Gov- 
ernments respectively." President Johnson 
maintained that the Federal Government had 
no right to interfere with the question of suf- 
frage in the States, except in determining the 
right of Senators and Eepresentatives to their 
seats in Congress and in guaranteeing to every 
State a republican form of government. ' ' That 
the State of Iowa may take steps to extend the 
right of suffrage, is not, as it seems to me, in 
conflict with this policy," he concluded, "and, 
consequently, those who support the policy of 
the President on this subject, are not in antag- 
onism with the platform of the Union party of 
Iowa."2«5 

Late in September Secretary Harlan made a 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 201 

brief visit at Mt. Pleasant and there took an- 
other occasion, in a public speech, to set forth 
the reconstruction policy of the President. It 
is noticeable, however, that his words at this 
time lack the clear, defiant ring so character- 
istic of his speeches in the Senate. His tone 
was mildly explanatory, and his appeal was 
rather for patience with the President in deal- 
ing with an entirely new and unprecedented 
situation than an open advocacy of any definite 
policy.^*^^ 

The one official report of Secretary Harlan 
is not unlike other departmental reports, al- 
though occasionally the individuality of its 
author crops out, in spite of the evident purpose 
to keep within the traditional range of depart- 
mental activities. Among the diversified and 
important public problems claiming the Secre- 
tary's attention the first and foremost was the 
public land question. After summarizing the 
statistics of lands already disposed of, he rec- 
ommended further preemption legislation ''to 
remove ambiguity and secure harmony in the 
enforcement of this beneficent policy in all the 
land States and Territories." 

Eeverting with satisfaction to the Homestead 
Law, which he had been so largely instrumental 
in framing and pushing to final passage, the 
Secretary believed that in the enactment of this 
law Congress was influenced ''by the conviction 



202 JAMES HARLAN 

that the settlement and cultivation of the public 
lands were objects of greater importance to the 
nation than the increased revenue that might be 
derived from their sale". In a paragraph in- 
viting Congress to establish a Bureau of Mining 
he struck the key-note of forest conservation to 
which the public and the Government after- 
wards responded. "All lands denominated 
mineral," recommended Secretary Harlan, 
''which do not bear the precious metals, should 
be brought into market, and thus placed under 
the guardianship of private owners. In no 
other mode, it is believed, can the great forests 
of timber, the growth of centuries, and of vast 
value to the nation, be effectually preserved 
from waste. ' ' He deplored the existing unreg- 
ulated condition of the great natural resources 
of the Nation. 

Passing from the land question, the report 
strongly presented the necessity of increased 
pension appropriations. ''Without regard to 
the amount they involve," the Secretary de- 
clared, "our engagements to our gallant army 
and navy must be performed with scrupulous 
fidelity. Their sacrifices for an imperiled coun- 
try have been blessed in the preservation of its 
unity, the maintenance of the just authority of 
the national government, and the vindication of 
the principles of civil liberty, which the fathers 
of the republic bequeathed to their children. ' ' 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 203 

Indian affairs also demanded consideration at 
this time. The perfidious violation of treaties 
by certain Indian tribes on the borders and the 
retribution which their unprovoked war, in al- 
liance with the rebels, had brought upon their 
heads, required necessary adjustments in the 
Indian policy of the Government. Secretary 
Harlan deplored the policy of total destruction 
which was openly advocated by "gentlemen of 
high position, intelligence, and personal char- 
acter". Such a policy could receive no sanction 
in a civilized country, and, moreover, the ex- 
pense of carrying out such a policy would make 
it impracticable. He therefore recommended 
that stringent laws be enacted to prevent the 
violation of the rights of peaceful tribes, and 
urged that the Indians be encouraged by every 
possible means to adopt agricultural pursuits. 

In discussing the needs and activities of the 
Patent Office the report pointed out the desira- 
bility of legislation restricting the unrestrained 
power of the Commissioner of Patents in cer- 
tain respects. Liberal appropriations for keep- 
ing census statistics were recommended. The 
construction of the Union Pacific Railroad and 
the progress of railroad building in general 
were reviewed in some detail and needed legis- 
lation was suggested. The remainder of the 
report had to do largely with the affairs of the 
District of Columbia.^^^ 



204 JAMES HARLAN 

In addition to his official duties the acceptance 
of the Cabinet position imposed upon James 
Harlan certain social obligations, which, bur- 
densome though they were, neither he nor Mrs. 
Harlan was disposed to shirk. Washington 
newspapers and correspondence from the cap- 
ital city during the social season of 1866 bear 
abundant testimony to the success of the Harlan 
family as entertainers, not by lavish display, 
but by wholesome good cheer and the simple 
application of good taste to the social require- 
ments of their position. 

New Year's Day, as usual, was a red-letter 
day in Washington society, for on that day 
President Johnson held his first public recep- 
tion at the White House; and, with the ex- 
ception of Secretary Seward, all of the Cabinet 
members kept open house. ^*Mr. Harlan re- 
ceived his visitors with the most cordial 
greetings," wrote a society reporter for one of 
the city papers, "and was frank, pleasant, and 
dignified in his bearing, and very full of the 
convivialities due the day. ' ' And on the follow- 
ing day the same paper gave full credit to Mrs. 
Harlan for her contribution to the charm of the 
occasion.2^^ 

Until the end of the season the Harlan home 
was the scene of many brilliant afternoon and 
evening receptions. The absence of dancing or 
of liquor in any form apparently added to. 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 205 

instead of detracting from, the pleasure with 
which these receptions were attended. ''The 
opening event of this week", ran the Washing- 
ton letter in a New York newspaper late in 
January, ''was the magnificent reception given 
last night by Secretary Harlan and lady. It 
equalled any of its predecessors in point of dis- 
tinguished guests, while in its cordial and genial 
enjoyment by those present, it is believed to 
have surpassed most of them. Secretary Har- 
lan occupies one of the most spacious residences 
in Washington, at 304 H. street, and its delight- 
ful arrangement for such an affair was gener- 
ally remarked last evening. The elegant 
apartments began to fill up a little before 9 
o'clock, and from that time until nearly mid- 
night there was a constant ebb and flow of the 
beauty, bravery, wealth and position that com- 
pose the most attractive phase of Washington 
society in the Winter. ' ' Then follows a list of 
those present, including the names of nearly all 
the Cabinet officers, members of several foreign 
embassies. Senators, Representatives, military 
men and distinguished citizens, many of whom 
were accompanied by their wives and daughters. 
"The occasion was not only a generous one," 
concluded the account, ' ' but refined and elegant 
to a flattering degree. "^^^ 

Later chapters will reveal the persistency 
with which certain Washington correspondents 



206 JAMES HARLAN 

and the journals which they represented pur- 
sued James Harlan after his return to the 
Senate, the burden of their charges in every 
instance being alleged malfeasance in office 
during his brief career as Secretary of the 
Interior. The animus of these attacks is easily 
to be inferred by anyone familiar with the con- 
ditions which confronted Harlan on entering 
upon his new duties. The administration of his 
predecessor, Secretary Usher, had been so sus- 
ceptible to congressional and journalistic in- 
fluence that the departmental pay-roll included 
the names of many newspaper correspondents 
and other proteges of Congressmen. The ser- 
vices of these men were more or less per- 
functory, or at most, fell far short of the 
expectations and demands of the department's' 
new head. 

Coming into office with an intimate personal 
knowledge of the work to be done, and with- an 
earnest and avowed purpose to put the depart- 
ment upon a working basis, one of Secretary 
Harlan's first acts was an investigation of the 
clerical force in the several bureaus and of the 
volume of work done in each bureau. He found 
that his department was burdened with scores 
of virtual pensioners, who were receiving full 
and even liberal pay for the scantiest service -^ 
mere routine work, and much of it of little real 
value to the department. 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 207 

The situation was made more embarrassing 
for the new Secretary by the inconsiderate 
action of Secretary Usher in making several 
appointments and in signing a certain contract 
shortly before retiring from office, which Harlan 
did not approve. ''Difficulty has also arisen in 
reference to the bonds to be issued to the Pacific 
Railroad. . . . The company claim to have 
completed forty miles of the road, as required 
by law, and to be entitled to a certain amount of 
government bonds, stipulated to be issued to 
them when that portion of the road was com- 
pleted. ' ' Commissioners had been appointed to 
examine the road, but their report was rejected 
by Secretary Harlan and new commissioners 
were appointed in their stead. This action 
brought a protest from the company construct- 
ing the road.^^*^ 

Within the first few weeks of James Harlan 's 
service as Secretary of the Interior there were 
three changes in the heads of bureaus in the 
•department.^ ^^ The resignation of Commis- 
sioner Dole from the Bureau of Indian Affairs 
removed one of the Secretary's chief sources of 
embarrassment. Harlan promptly appointed to 
the. position D. N. Cooley of Dubuque, Iowa, a 
trusted friend and a man of large ability. But 
in his attempts to promote harmony between 
the Interior Department and the War Depart- 
ment in dealing with the Indians there resulted 



208 JAMES HARLAN 

only friction and dissatisfaction. These condi- 
tions, coupled with Harlan's open break with 
President Johnson, are quite sufficient to ac- 
count for the virulency of the antagonism 
against the new Secretary which developed in 
departmental circles at Washington, and fol- 
lowed him for the remaining years of his 
political career. 

Among the many clerks and supernumeraries 
who received their dismissal from the Interior 
Department during the general clearing-out 
process instituted by Secretary Harlan was the 
famous poet, Walt Whitman, and probably no 
other similar dismissal brought down upon 
Harlan such a storm of censure. Whitman had 
earned the gratitude of the Government by his 
devoted services to sick and wounded soldiers 
in the Washington hospitals, and had been given 
a clerkship in the Indian Bureau in recognition 
of those services. He ''had been a favorite with 
the chief clerk in the bureau, and had been given 
a good deal of latitude", and "whenever the 
duties were not pressing, he was at work upon 
his manuscripts. "2^2 That his work was not 
commensurate with his salary or with the ser- 
vices of those who were carrying the actual 
burden of clerical labor in the Indian Bureau is 
admitted by most of his biographers.-^^ 

As has been noted Secretary Harlan early 
determined on a policy of economy, including 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 209 

the dismissal of every clerk not deemed neces- 
sary to the efficiency of the department. The 
rule was rigidly enforced, and as many as 
eighty removals on a single day were reported. 
On June 30th occurred the dismissal of Walt 
Whitman, along with several others who had 
been holding their offices simply as rewards for 
past services.2^^ 

A number of Whitman 's friends, chief among 
whom was W. D. O'Connor, a brilliant writer, 
resented the poet's dismissal and took up cud- 
gels in his behalf. O'Connor charged Harlan 
with having gone to Whitman's desk at night 
and taken therefrom the manuscript of "Leaves 
of Grass ' ', on which the poet was working at the 
time. Furthermore, O'Connor alleged that 
Harlan had read sufficiently far in the manu- 
script to convince himself that it did not meet 
his idea of decency, that he had then returned 
the manuscript to the desk, and immediately 
thereafter dismissed Whitman from the ser- 
vice.^ ^^ 

From that day to this, nearly every biogra- 
pher of Whitman has repeated the apparently 
unsupported statement of O'Connor as to the 
surreptitious reading of the manuscript and the 
consequent discharge of its author. Neverthe- 
less, the fact remains that Secretary Harlan 
removed Whitman on Commissioner Dole's re- 
port recommending that he, with others, be 

14 



210 JAMES HARLAN 

dismissed, and for a reason virtually conceded 
by the more candid friends of the poet to be a 
valid one, namely, that his services were not 
essential to the successful operation of the 
Indian Bureau. The fact that an indiscreet 
friend unduly pressed Whitman's claims for re- 
instatement, chiefly on the ground of his service 
in the hospitals and his literary achievements, 
and that Secretary Harlan saw no reason why 
the author of "Leaves of Grass" should be 
longer pensioned in a department devoted sole- 
ly to business, is the only discoverable founda- 
tion for the O'Connor charges.^"*^ 

An exhaustive history of the disruption of 
President Johnson's first Cabinet will probably 
never be written. The parties to the differences 
resulting in the withdrawal of three of its mem- 
bers — appointees of President Lincoln — have 
long since passed away, leaving little more of 
record than a few private letters, a few inci- 
dental statements by participants in the dis- 
cussions in Cabinet meetings, a few scattered 
press reports more or less untrustworthy, and 
the recently published Diary of the Reconstruc- 
tion Period, left by Secretary Gideon Welles.*^ ^^ 
But the general facts concerning the break-up 
of the Cabinet and the controversy between 
President Johnson and Congress on the subject 
of Reconstruction are sufficiently well known to 
need no discussion in this connection.^'^ 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 211 

From the first there seems to have been 
a lack of harmony in the Cabinet. The stringent 
oath of office prescribed by Congress, the Max- 
imilian episode in Mexico, the proposed trial 
of Jefferson Davis, and the war measures of 
Secretary Stanton were all subjects upon which 
there was sharp division. On some of these 
questions Secretary Harlan took decided 
ground, and as often found himself in alliance 
with the Administration as in opposition to 
it.^'^ But when the open break came with Con- 
gress, he was unable to adopt the view that the 
reconstruction of the southern States was an 
executive prerogative. Furthermore, when the 
radical supporters of President Johnson issued 
a call for a "National Union Convention" to 
meet in Philadelphia and organize a new party, 
Secretaries Harlan and Dennison and Attorney- 
General Speed ' ' could go no further in nominal 
support of Johnson when such action involved 

a clear breach with the old Union organiza- 
tion, "^so 

Consequently on July 27, 1866, Secretary 
Harlan resigned. "Having heretofore in- 
formed you of my readiness to withdraw from 
the Cabinet when it might accord with your 
pleasure and convenience to name my succes- 
sor, ' ' he declared in a letter to President John- 
son, "and in pursuance of an understanding 
arrived at in a recent interview, I hereby tender 



212 JAMES HARLAN 

my resignation of the position of Secretary of 
the Interior ".281 

As will be seen, much censure was heaped on 
James Harlan by his enemies because he re- 
mained in the Cabinet after he had broken with 
the President. But, as is indicated in the letter 
of resignation, he had previously signified his 
readiness to withdraw. In fact it is very evi- 
dent that he remained in Johnson's Cabinet 
much longer than he desired to remain, deeming 
it his duty to retain the position as long as he 
could with self-respect and without compromise 
of principle. His so-called non-committal atti- 
tude, covering only a few weeks at the longest, 
was in full conformity with his standard of 
official courtesy .2^- 



XX 

Haklan and Kirkwood 

While James Harlan was busy dismissing 
useless clerks from the Department of the 
Interior during the summer and fall of 1865, 
many clever maneuvers were in progress on 
the political checkerboard in Iowa to fill his 
vacant seat in the Senate for the unexpired 
term, which would end on March 3, 1867. 
Furthermore, the legislature which would meet 
in January, 1866, would be called upon to choose 
a Senator for the full six-year term beginning 
on March 4, 1867. His acceptance of the Cab- 
inet position seemed to indicate that Harlan 
would be out of the race. Consequently, with 
both the short and the long term as prizes there 
were many political leaders in Iowa who were 
"willing" to enter the contest. 

As early as March 30, 1865, before Harlan 
had really decided to accept President Lincoln's 
appointment, there was correspondence be- 
tween Governor William M. Stone and Samuel 
J. Kirkwood with regard to the anticipated 
vacancy. At this time the Governor practically 

213 



214 JAMES HARLAN 

promised to appoint Kirkwood in case the 
vacancy should occur before the meeting of the 
legislature.2^^ Although Stone later apparently 
reconsidered the advisability of making an ap- 
pointment, the possibility that the vacancy 
would be filled in this manner caused no little 
speculation during the summer. Samuel J. 
Kirkwood, however, early came to be recognized 
as a leading candidate for the senatorship. 

Late in the summer much excitement was 
caused by rumors that Secretary Harlan de- 
sired to return to the Senate, and as the weeks 
went by these rumors developed into certainty. 
About the middle of July Harlan wrote to 
Kirkwood, stating that as far as he knew his 
friends would support the War Governor for 
the senatorship. ' ' I am not sure, however, ' ' he 
continued, ' ' but I would like to swap places with 
you after you have grown a little tired of a seat 
in the senate, and feel like taking a little recrea- 
tion in running after thieves that have been 
burrowing about this Department, and living 
under its protecting aegis in the states and 
territories. How would you like itf"^^^ Dur- 
ing the months following this letter Kirkwood 
was the recipient of many letters warning him 
that Harlan was laying plans to get back into 
the Senate. ''I have heard so much about what 
Harlan is doing," wrote Jacob Rich, one of 
Kirkwood 's most ardent supporters, ''the ropes 



HARLAN AND KIRKWOOD 215 

he is pulling, the patronage he is wielding, and 
the power he is using to accomplish his election, 
that I feel a good deal down in the mouth ".^^^ 
Among Kirkwood's friends, however, the one 
who was the most outspoken against Harlan's 
change of front was James W. Grimes. He had 
advised Harlan not to accept the Cabinet posi- 
tion, but since he had accepted it Grimes con- 
sidered it an act of bad faith to seek a return 
to the position which he had so recently aban- 
doned and for which he had virtually promised 
to support Kirkwood. He ridiculed Harlan's 
alleged reluctance to accept the secretaryship, 
declaring that the change from the Senate to 
the Interior Department had been made merely 
for the purpose of entrenching himself at home 
by a free use of departmental patronage. He 
spoke of the fact that Secretary Harlan had 
recently purchased an expensive house in 
Washington, much to the surprise of all who 
knew him, but he believed it was due the Secre- 
tary to say that in his opinion the charges of 
dishonesty which this purchase had occasioned 
were groundless.^^^ Nevertheless, the friendly 
relations between Grimes and Harlan, long dis- 
turbed by rival ambitions, rival claims to 
local support, and the inevitable friction be- 
tween rival camps of interested personal sup- 
porters, were broken when Secretary Harlan 
announced himself in the hands of his friends 
for a third senatorial term. 



216 JAMES HARLAN 

The news of Harlan's candidacy for a return 
to the Senate was greeted with much difference 
of opinion on the part of the general public in 
Iowa. The Muscatine Journal thought that this 
sudden decision would greatly complicate the 
senatorial situation, and presumed that Harlan 
would soon resign from the Cabinet.-^^ The 
Davenport Gazette, on the other hand, believed 
that the situation would be very much simpli- 
fied. "It is no disparagement to any one of the 
distinguished men whose names have been men- 
tioned in connection with the vacant Senator- 
ship", declared the editor, "to say that in all 
the requisites for a competent, faithful and 
influential legislator, Mr. Harlan is the superior 
of them all. ... As Secretary of the In- 
terior, Mr. Harlan is doing good service to the 
country, but if he will assent to leave that 
honored position to serve again in the Senate, 

there should be no question as to his elec- 
tion, "^ss 

The Burlington Hawh-Eye did not believe 
Harlan would be a candidate unless he was 
urged to do so by his friends. But if this should 
prove to be the case, the editor thought Harlan 
should be left perfectly free to make his own 
choice, since he had gone into the Cabinet 
' ' against his own wishes and at the urgent and 
continued solicitations of President Lincoln and 
leading friends of the Union. "-^'^ This view, 



HARLAN AND KIRKWOOD 217 

however, did not meet with the approval of 
certain other newspapers, such as the Dubuque 
Times and the Iowa City Republican. ''The 
danger of the present crisis", said the editor 
of the Republican, ''is from the executive, not 
the legislative, department of the government, 
and should Mr. Harlan retire from the Cabinet 
we have every reason to believe his place would 
be filled by a 'conservative,' and the danger 
increased. Allowing Mr. Harlan to be sujDcrior 
to all others in his capacity to influence the 
affairs of the nation for good, it seems to us he 
is just where we want him, and where, of all 
places, we need him."^''^ 

Finally, there were those who advocated 
electing some other person for the short term 
and giving Harlan the long term. This would 
allow him to remain in the Cabinet until the 
first Monday in December, 1867, nearly two 
years and nearly until the end of President 
Johnson's administration.^''^ 

By the time the legislature convened in Janu- 
ary, 1866, James Harlan and Samuel J. Kirk- 
wood were recognized as the leading candidates 
for the senatorship. There were, however, a 
number of other aspirants for the position, 
including John A. Kasson, William M. Stone, 
S. R. Curtis, Fitz Henry Warren, and Asahel 
W. Hubbard, each with a small coterie of sup- 
porters, who urged their claims "with an 



218 JAMES HARLAN 

earnestness and fervor almost military. "^^^ 
During the first days of the session the senator- 
ship was apparently the main topic of discus- 
sion in the capitol and hotel lobbies. A 
newspaper correspondent declared that '4f 
' * Cruikshank could have had good sketchers on 
the ground, his immortal brain would have 
found work for years" in depicting the scenes 
that were enacted.^^^ 

There were charges and countercharges. 
Kirkwood was accused of being opposed to 
negro suffrage, of having agreed to take the 
short term in order to defeat a nortli^rn Iowa 
candidate, and of having made his military ap- 
pointments with a view to promoting his own 
senatorial aspirations. Harlan was charged 
with insincerity in his acceptance of the secre- 
taryship and with having enriched himself since 
he had been in the Department of the Interior. 
And in addition to these accusations, which 
apparently were made more in a spirit of good- 
natured banter than in seriousness, the religious 
affiliations or beliefs of the candidates were 
used as arguments when everything else had 
been exhausted.^'*'* 

The caucus of the Republicans of the legis- 
lature was held on the evening of January 11, 
1866, and on the third ballot James Harlan 
received four votes more than the number 
necessary to nominate him for the long term in 



HARLAN AND KIRKWOOD 219 

the Senate, beginning March 4, 1867. Samuel 
J. Kirkwood, who received the next highest 
number of votes, and nearly tied Harlan on the 
first ballot, was on a fourth ballot declared the 
party nominee for the remainder of the un- 
expired term.2^^ Nomination virtually amount- 
ed to election, for the Republicans were 
overwhelmingly in the majority. On January 
13th the legislature officially confirmed the 
choice made in the caucus.-^® 

** Between these two well-known and long- 
tried public servants, popular opinion through- 
out the State as well as in the General 
Assembly, seems to have been nearly equally 
divided", said a Des Moines editor, in com- 
menting upon the results of the election. 
"Each has a record, beginning in the palmy 
days long before the war, and coming down 
through the era of the Rebellion, which will 
ever be proudly cherished as a part of the his- 
tory of our patriotic State. While the friends 
of each of these distinguished men have been 
warm and earnest in their support, public 
opinion throughout the State will hail the re- 
sult generally as one of the most auspicious 
events since Iowa was won over from the reign 
of the Pro-Slavery Democracy. "297 

While it is believed that this statement ex- 
pressed the attitude of a majority of the people 
of the State, there were those who, disappointed 



220 JAMES HARLAN 

at the defeat of Kirkwood for the long term, 
were quick to bring charges of corruption 
against the successful candidate. A corre- 
spondent for an Iowa City newspaper, for 
instance, stated that there were at Des Moines, 
lobbying for Harlan, fifteen men in one way or 
another connected with the Department of the 
Interior, and ''Methodist Preachers, without 
number or piety. "^^^ 

That James Harlan actively sought a return 
to the United States Senate after having been 
only a few months in President Johnson's 
Cabinet can not be denied. But it is not believed 
that in so doing he merited the charges which 
were made against him. In the first place, his 
most confidential correspondence reveals the 
reluctance with which he accepted the secre- 
taryship. In the second place, there is no basis 
for the accusation that he had accepted the 
President's appointment simply in order to 
bolster himself up for a third term in the Sen- 
ate, for in 1865, when he went into the Cabinet, 
James Harlan had no need to fear defeat at the 
hands of the people of Iowa. 

After he had accepted the appointment, how- 
ever, he found the position an unpleasant one, 
both on account of vexatious difficulties within 
the department and on account of his inability 
to approve of President Johnson's policies. It 
was, therefore, not a violation of political ethics 



HARLAN AND KIRKWOOD 221 

for him to desire to return to a position wMch 
had proved more agreeable and which he had 
every reason to believe the people of Iowa 
would be glad to have him fill. Furthermore, it 
is probable that he felt disinclined to retire 
from public life in the face of the storm of petty 
criticism which had been raised by his endeavor 
to reform the Department of the Interior. 

That a number of men in the service of the 
Department of the Interior were more or less 
active in their support of Harlan's candidacy 
during this contest also admits of no doubt.^^^ 
But it was not an unknown thing even at that 
day for men to labor for the political advance- 
ment of those to whom they owed their posi- 
tions. No evidence has been discovered to prove 
that there was any corruption in connection 
with the assistance thus rendered in this case. 
In fact it would seem that the one charge 
against James Harlan in this contest capable of 
being sustained is that he forgot his promise to 
a friend, if, indeed, he had definitely promised 
to support Kirkwood for the long term.^*^° 

Unfortunately the election of James Harlan 
to the Senate by the legislature in 1866 resulted 
in breaking the friendly relations between him- 
self and two other men, James W. Grimes and 
Samuel J. Kirkwood, who with himself stand 
out conspicuously as Iowa's statesmen of the 
Civil War and Reconstruction period.^*^^ 



XXI 

Eeconstkuction and Impeachment 

The assembling of the first session of the 
Fortieth Congress on March 4, 1867, found 
James Harlan once more in his seat in the 
Senate, after an absence of two years. In the 
committee assignments he was made chairman 
of the Committee on the District of Columbia 
and was given a place on three other com- 
mittees : Foreign Relations, Post Office and Post 
Roads, and Pacific Railroad. 

No extended speeches were made by Senator 
Harlan during this session, which closed about 
the middle of July. With his accustomed thor- 
oughness, however, he labored to perfect a 
number of important bills, upon some of which 
his experience as Secretary of the Interior 
made him especially fitted to pass judgment. 
Naturally the larger part of his time was de- 
voted to bills relating to the District of Co- 
lumbia. But he also participated in the 
formulation and discussion of several bills 
dealing with western problems. In fact the first 
bill introduced by Senator Harlan was one to 



RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS 223 

admit the State of Colorado into the Union.^^^ 
In the discussion of a joint resolution providing 
for the sale of certain stocks held in trust for 
the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians he insisted 
that the real issue was whether the disloyal 
portion of these tribes should pay the loyal 
portion for damages done by the former when 
they joined the Confederate forces and drove 
the latter from their homes.^*'^ He also took 
occasion to defend the Indian Bureau against 
charges made by Senator William M. Stew- 
^j.|- 304 Fii:ially, when there was complaint that 
the Pacific Railroad was not being pushed as 
rapidly as it should be, he replied that the 
company had carried on the work of construc- 
tion whenever the weather would permit, and 
during the past year had constructed more miles 
than the law required.^*' ^ 

In the fall of 1867 Senator Harlan placed 
himself at the disposal of the Iowa Republican 
State Central Committee, and spent several 
weeks in filling assignments for political 
speeches in different parts of the State. Then 
he returned to Washington to prepare for the 
w^ork of a session of Congress which proved to 
be intensely exciting. 

Reconstruction and the impeachment of 
Andrew Johnson were the two subjects which 
overshadowed all others during the second 
session of the Fortieth Congress, and in both 



224 JAMES HARLAN 

cases the voice of James Harlan was heard in 
vigorous protest against the actions and policy 
of the President. On February 10th he opened 
the debate on the supplemental reconstruction 
bill and, in an eminently logical and well-con- 
structed speech, set forth his views on the 
question which was the great issue of the day. 
Since, in his opinion, the whole controversy 
over reconstruction would be settled by deter- 
mining whether or not the existing governments 
in the ten southern States were legal, he pro- 
ceeded with a historical review of the situation. 
The governments which had existed in each of 
these States in 1860 had been superseded ''by 
organizations which the people themselves in 
those States denominated State governments", 
but which every department of the National 
government had declared to be void. But in 
what did the illegality of these so-called rebel 
State governments consist? They had been 
drawn up in pursuance of law and with great 
regularity, they were practically perfect in form 
and effective in operation, and they were repub- 
lican in character. It might be objected that 
they failed to comply with the constitutional 
provisions requiring all State officers to take an 
oath to support the Constitution of the United 
States. But this was a defect which might 
easily be supyjlied. In fact two propositions of 
this kind had been made and had been promptly 



RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS 225 

rejected by the President. Judging them, there- 
fore, strictly from the standpoint of legality, 
there was no defect in the rebel State govern- 
ments which Congress might not easily have 
remedied had it been inclined to do so. 

Turning then to an examination of the gov- 
ernments established by President Johnson in 
the southern States at the close of the war, he 
declared that their organization was effected 
without warrant of any law, constitutional or 
statute, federal or State. ''Nor were they the 
fruits of the voluntary action of the people of 
these States .... The voluntary action 
of the people was in a different direction. . . . 
They proposed voluntarily to assemble, rescind 
their ordinances of secession, and repeal the 
laws which they had enacted in conflict with the 
Constitution and laws of the United States". 
Instead of this, the President compelled them to 
begin " de novo an organization of State gov- 
ernments from the foundation, ' ' and compelled 
them by military force to embody and enforce 
certain provisions in their constitutions. ' ' They 
were no more voluntary than the delivery of 
his purse by an unarmed traveler on demand of 
a highwayman with the mouth of a pistol at his 
breast." Therefore, the governments initiated 
by the President were defective and equally 
void with the governments which preceded 
them. 

15 



226 JAMES HARLAN 

It was admitted, as in the case of the rebel 
State governments, that Congress might pass 
over these defects if it chose. There were many 
precedents for action of this character on the 
part of Congress, but thus far in this case no 
such laws had been passed. Senator Harlan 
did not believe that the fact that amendments to 
the federal Constitution had been adopted by 
the aid of some of these southern States implied 
the recognition of the validity of their govern- 
ments on the part of Congress. 

The real question, then, was whether it would 
be wise for Congress to vitalize the defective 
provisional governments in the ten southern 
States as they were then constituted. The sup- 
porters of the President insisted that since the 
Republicans had sustained Lincoln's adminis- 
tration and policy they were bound to sustain 
his successor. Harlan denied this claim by 
showing that Johnson's policy was by no means 
identical with that of President Lincoln, if, 
indeed, the latter could be said to have formu- 
lated any definite policy of reconstruction. 
Hence Congress need feel no necessity of sup- 
porting Andrew Johnson's actions on that 
ground. Moreover, the evidence brought out in 
the investigations of the Committee on Recon- 
struction went to show that the southern State 
governments as then organized were *'in the 
hands of those who were the leaders in the re- 



RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS 227 

bellion, almost without a single exception", and 
that the men elected to seats in both houses of 
Congress were of the same stamp. 

The contention made by some Senators that 
the test oath prescribed by Congress in 1862 
would serve to keep out of Congress those in 
sympathy with the rebellion, Senator Harlan 
declared to be fallacious. That this oath would 
prove no barrier had already been demonstrated 
in several cases in which it had been left to the 
individual applying for a seat in Congress to 
decide for himself whether or not he could take 
the oath in good conscience. And in spite of 
the fact that it had been claimed that the 
Senators and Representatives from the ten 
southern States would be few in number, he 
insisted that they might easily hold the balance 
of power. 

"If, then," Senator Harlan said in conclu- 
sion, ''this Government is justifiable in refusing 
to vitalize these illegal State organizations; if 
it is necessary for the protection of the people, 
in order that they may not be hereafter saddled 
with an immensely augTaented national debt, we 
come to the inquiry, whether we have the power 
to do so." In other words, was the reconstruc- 
tion legislation already passed by Congress 
unconstitutional? Ten members of the Senate 
had charged the remaining forty-three with 
passing those laws for partisan purposes, 



228 JAMES HARLAN 

''with knowingly, willfully, trampling under 
their feet the fundamental law of the nation, 
violating their oaths of office, sitting here with 
blighted consciences before God; and, if the 
allegation be true, deserving nothing so much 
as the scorn of all honest men." These charges 
Senator Harlan emphatically repelled. No de- 
cision of the courts had yet called into question 
the validity of any of the reconstruction laws 
passed by Congress. And finally, when the 
case had been submitted to the great jury of 
the people at the last congressional elections 
they had sustained the Congressional, as op- 
posed to the executive, policy of Reconstruction 
by a majority of over one hundred and thirty- 
four thousand, in spite of President Johnson's 
famous ' ' swinging round the circle ' ' tour.^*^^ 

A side-light on Senator Harlan's attitude to- 
ward Reconstruction is to be found in a letter 
written shortly after his speech in the Senate 
to James Vincent of Tabor, Iowa. This letter, 
which was published in the newspapers, deals 
almost entirely with the question of negro 
suffrage, on which there was much difference 
of opinion, and reveals something of the per- 
plexing problems which confronted conscien- 
tious members of Congress in dealing with the 
southern States. 

Senator Harlan realized the objections to 
granting the suffrage to a race of people which 



RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS 229 

had so long been kept in ignorance. And yet he 
saw no other way of securing reconstruction 
*'on a Union platform". If the whites alone 
were allowed to vote ''a majority of them be- 
ing honest secessionists, they would select 
secessionists to fill all the offices, to make and 
enforce all the laws, State and National". In 
fact, there was no need for conjecture on this 
point, for such had proven to be the case in 
several instances. If, on the other hand, whites 
and negroes alike were allowed to vote it would 
insure the election of a majority of Union men 
in every State. 

Clearly, then, it was not safe to trust the 
suffrage to the whites alone, and only two 
courses remained open : to enforce military rule 
in the southern States, or to insure the election 
of Union men. The first alternative was out of 
the question. The second could be accom- 
plished only by the aid of the negro vote. He 
admitted that the negroes had been deprived of 
book learning, but insisted that at every oppor- 
tunity thus far they had shown themselves 
capable of understanding the points at issue 
between the North and the South. To deny 
them suffrage until they could read and write, 
unless also denied the whites, would be unjust 
to them and would endanger the welfare of the 
southern States by continuing ex-rebels in 
power. To require both whites and blacks to be 



230 JAMES HARLAN 

able to read and write before being allowed to 
vote would create an aristocracy. ''You will 
perceive, therefore," Senator Harlan said in 
conclusion, ''that it is a difficult subject to settle 

— that we are compelled to run some hazards 

— and, on the whole, I am inclined to think it 
safer to trust ignorant people who are honest 
and patriotic than educated knaves and con- 
fessed traitors. "^^^"^ 

Reconstruction, however, was not the subject 
which created the most widespread interest 
during the early months of 1868, nor is it the 
debates on this subject for which the second 
session of the Fortieth Congress is especially 
remembered in history. The impeachment 
trial of Andrew Johnson was the all-absorbing 
topic of discussion, both in the halls of Congress 
and in the country at large. Among the Sen- 
ators who put themselves on record in favor of 
impeacliment was James Harlan. His "opin- 
ion" was neither as oratorical nor as elaborate 
as many of the other speeches delivered during 
the course of the trial. It was comparatively 
brief and was confined to the first two articles 
of impeachment, but it was characteristically 
clear, logical, and convincing. 

Addressing himself to the first article of 
impeachment which charged the President with 
removing Secretary Stanton from the War 
Department in violation of the Constitution and 



RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS 231 

the Tenure of Office Act of March 2, 1867, 
Senator Harlan reviewed the constitutional 
aspects of the case. "The Constitution does 
not anyw^here," he held, ''in terms, confer on 
the President the authority to make removals; 
nor does it anywhere confer on him this right 
by necessary implication. It does confer on 
him the qiialified right to make appointments." 
That is, the President had the exclusive power 
to make appointments to fill vacancies tempo- 
rarily during the recess of the Senate, and to 
make permanent appointments during the ses- 
sion of the Senate, by and with the consent of 
that body. Grranting, therefore, that the right 
to appoint implied the right to remove, it fol- 
lowed that the President had no power to make 
removals during the session of the Senate 
without securing its consent, as had been the 
case in the removal of the Secretary of War. 
In fact this was practically the first case in the 
history of the Nation in which the President 
had made a removal without securing the con- 
sent of the Senate when that body was in 
session. 

If the President might at his discretion re- 
move civil officers he might with equal authority 
remove Judges of the Supreme Court and of- 
ficers in the army and navy whenever it suited 
his fancy. ' ' I cannot bring myself to believe ' ', 
Harlan declared, "that the framers of the 



232 JAMES HARLAN 

Constitution could have intended to vest in the 
President a purely discretionary power so vast 
and far-reaching in its consequences, which if 
exercised by a bad or a weak President would 
enable him to bring to his feet all the officers of 
the Government, military and civil, judicial and 
executive, to strike down the republican char- 
acter of our institutions and establish all the 
distasteful characteristics of a monarchy." 
For these reasons, he believed that President 
Johnson had violated the Constitution in re- 
moving Secretary Stanton. 

Not only had Andrew Johnson violated the 
Constitution, reasoned the Senator, but he had 
also violated the Tenure of Office Act. This act, 
approved on March 2, 1867, had been enacted 
with two purposes in view^: to prohibit re- 
movals, and to limit the terms of service of 
Cabinet members; and it expressly provided 
that removal of Cabinet members should be by 
and with the consent of the Senate. 

The second article of impeachment charged 
the President with appointing Lorenzo Thomas 
as Secretary of War ad interim when there was 
no vacancy in that office, and without the con- 
sent of the Senate, which was in session at the 
time. The President justified the ai3pointment 
of Thomas by citing a statute, passed in 1795, 
authorizing the President to fill temporarily 
vacancies caused by the inability of a Cabinet 



RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEMS 233 

officer to perform tlie duties of his office. But 
Senator Harlan contended that this law did not 
give President Johnson authority to appoint 
Thomas during the session of the Senate with- 
out its consent, for to construe the law in this 
manner would render it unconstitutional and 
consequently null and void. Moreover, the law 
in question did not contemplate a vacancy cre- 
ated by removal — a removal which in this case 
was in violation of both the Constitution and 
the Tenure of Office Act, as was charged in the 
first article of impeachment. Hence Thomas 
had been appointed by Andrew Johnson to a 
vacancy which did not legally exist. "I do not, 
therefore, see my way clear, ' ' declared Senator 
Harlan in closing, ' ' under the solemnities of my 
oath, to find him innocent. ' '^^^ 

Harlan's speech was hailed with hearty ap- 
proval in Iowa and throughout the West. ' ' We 
take great pleasure in presenting to our readers 
this unanswerable speech of Senator Harlan," 
proclaimed the Iowa State Register /^hecause in 
these times of Senatorial recreancy it will help 
to show that the popular verdict which, months 
ago, convicted Andrew Johnson of high crimes, 
warranting his removal from office, was founded 
upon an honest, legal basis. '"^'^^ By the irony 
of fate which sometimes leads public opinion 
into mistaken channels. Senator Grimes, one 
of the small group who stoutly opposed 



234 JAMES HARLAN 

impeachment, received nothing but bitter con- 
demnation from his constituents. **Mr. Harlan 
voted as the Republicans of Iowa, without a 
dissenting voice, desired and expected — Mr. 
Grimes voted as none desired, but many 
feared", was the comment of a writer in a 
Chicago newspaper.^ ^*^ And yet it is the verdict 
of history that James W. Grimes and his asso- 
ciates in voting against the impeachment of 
Andrew Johnson saved the country from what 
would have been, to say the least, a very em- 
barrassing situation. 

Reconstruction and impeachment, however, 
did not prevent Senator Harlan from giving 
careful attention to the regular grist of legis- 
lation. As in the previous session his energies 
were largely directed toward supplying the 
needs of the District of Columbia. But he took 
part in the debates on at least seventy bills and 
resolutions covering the whole range of legis- 
lative activity. Bills relating to the Dubuque 
and Sioux City Railroad and the central branch 
of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and a 
resolution regarding the Rock Island bridge 
called for special remarks, because they were of 
vital interest to the people of Iowa. The Indian 
appropriation bill and the deficiency bill were 
other subjects in the discussion of which Sen- 
ator Harlan took a prominent part. 



XXII 

Chakges of Dishonesty 

The year which James Harlan spent in the 
Cabinet of President Johnson as Secretary of 
the Interior was without doubt the turning 
point of his career. For out of that one year's 
service grew nearly all the persecution which 
followed him during the remaining years of 
his public life. The opposition aroused by 
Secretary Harlan by his attempts to put the In- 
terior Department on an honest business basis, 
and the charges made against him at the time of 
his reelection to the Senate have already been 
noted. But these charges were onlj^ the be- 
ginning of a series of vindictive and unwar- 
ranted accusations made by his enemies for the 
purpose of driving him from his seat in the 
Senate. 

The presidential campaign of 1868, like the 
three preceding ones, brought Senator Harlan 
valiantly to the support of his party. A rumor 
had been circulated to the effect that he was to 
enter the canvass in the Pacific coast States, but 
a Des Moines editor assured his readers that 

235 



236 JAMES HARLAN 

this report was untrue. He congratulated ''the 
people of the State upon the opportunity which 
will be thus afforded them of listening to one of 
the most eloquent orators in the country; and 
one who, when others have wavered and fal- 
tered, has always been true to his principles 
and to the party he has been chosen to repre- 
sent. "^^^ Then followed a list of speaking 
appointments covering the southeastern quarter 
of the State from Des Moines to Burlington. 

On September 5th, the day of Senator Har- 
lan's speech at the State capital, a newspaper 
published in Des Moines declared that "Harlan 
has many constituents in Iowa, poor men, who 
would like to get a 40, 80 or 160 acre tract of 
that Kansas land which he sold to Sturgis for 
one cent and a quarter an acre, and will give 
21/2 cents per acre.""^^ rpj^^g ^^^g ^ faint re- 
flection of a charge made against Harlan shortly 
after his retirement from the Cabinet, in which 
he was accused of corruption in the sale of 
certain Cherokee Indian lands in Kansas. He 
had at the time vigorously denied the charge 
and made a detailed explanation of the sale 
which to any fair-minded person would have 
cleared him of suspicion of wrong-doing. But 
fairness is not always found in politics, and so 
the charge made its appearance periodically 
until the man at whom it was aimed was retired 
to private life. 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 237 

In this case, however, Senator Harlan was 
not obliged to make his own defense, for he 
found an able champion in the editor of the 
Iowa State Register. That journal denied that 
Harlan had ever sold any land to "Sturgis" 
for one and a quarter cents per acre or for any 
other price. "While Senator Harlan was Sec- 
retary of the Interior he did negotiate a sale of 
a tract of land situated in Kansas, owned by 
the Cherokee Indians, not to ' Sturgis ', but to a 
reliable Company; and not for one and one 
quarter cents per acre, but all that part claimed 
and occupied by settlers for the appraised value 
by sworn appraisers, and the residue, including 
all the refuse land in the tract, at one dollar 
per acre." This sale had been assailed ''by the 
disreputable portion of the Copperhead press 
as a swindle. And Mr. Harlan's successor. 
Secretary Browning, attempted to break up the 
sale; advertised the land for sale for about a 
year; was unable to sell it for more than one 
dollar per acre; and then made a new treaty 
with the Cherokee Indians at their request, con- 
firming the sale made by Secretary Harlan. "^^^ 

About the middle of September James Harlan 
hastened back to Washington to attend a special 
session of Congress, and to be present at an 
event which cemented the strong friendship 
which since 1861 had existed between the 
Lincoln and Harlan families. On the evening 



238 JAMES HARLAN 

of September 24, 1868, at the Harlan home in 
Washington, occurred the marriage of Robert 
T. Lincoln and Mary Harlan. No cards of in- 
vitation were issued, and the wedding party 
consisted simply of a few personal friends of 
the two families. ^^^ 

In the legislation of the third session of the 
Fortieth Congress, Senator Harlan took com- 
paratively little part beyond active service on 
committees and occasional participation in the 
discussion of subjects on which he was espe- 
cially prepared to speak. But on January 15th 
there came to his attention an article signed by 
H. V. Boynton, which had originally appeared 
in the Cincinnati Gazette. The article pur- 
ported to be an expose of frauds in connection 
with the disposal of public lands in the West, 
and two paragraphs referred particularly to 
Harlan's actions while Secretary of the In- 
terior. The first charge made against Harlan 
had to do with the extension of the Burlington 
and Missouri River Railroad. It was asserted 
that by an improper order withdrawing from 
sale lands along this extension Harlan had 
attempted to divert for himself and a number 
of friends ''a tract large enough for a very 
respectable State", and that he had been pre- 
vented only by the remonstrances of the Kansas 
legislature and the Kansas delegation in the 
lower house of Congress. 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 239 

The second accusation which Boynton made 
against Harlan was a renewal of the oft- 
repeated charge in connection with the sale of 
the Cherokee Indian lands in Kansas. ''The 
treaty regarding these lands", ran the article, 
"provided that he might sell them in a body at 
not less than one dollar per acre, and for cash. 
He sold to a company called the Connecticut 
Emigrant Company, which was, in reality, an 
Iowa company, in which his friends, at least, 
were largely interested. Instead of selling for 
cash, he, in violation of law, sold the tract of 
eight hundred thousand acres on time, requiring 
only $25,000 as a first payment. The sale was 
disputed, and the Attorney General decided that 
the whole affair was illegal. Here it rested till 
a supplemental treaty could be worked through 
the Senate authorizing a sale on time. . . . 
Leaving entirely out of view the low^a feature 
of the so-called Connecticut company and the 
circles of his friends who were enriched, the 
mildest aspect which can be put upon it is that 
the Attorney General decided the operation to 
be outside the bounds of the law."^^^ 

On January 18th Senator Harlan asked and 
received permission to make a few remarks 
relative to Boynton 's statements, not so much 
to clear himself as to set the real facts before 
the public, for the article in question exhibited 
"a degree of carelessness or of ignorance, if 



240 JAMES HARLAN 

nothing worse ' ', that ' ' would unfit a gentleman 
to be a correspondent for any respectable 
journal." Furthermore, he declared that if his 
reputation ''could now be seriously and per- 
manently affected by such influences, however 
potential," he would consider his life a failure. 

Taking up the accusation in connection with 
the Burlington and Missouri River extension, 
he called attention to the law specifically re- 
quiring the Secretary of the Interior to with- 
draw from sale lands along the route of the 
proposed road for the benefit of the road. He 
read correspondence to prove that he had ful- 
filled the requirements of the law, and nothing 
more. ''In relation to the insinuation that this 
order was made for the purpose of benefiting 
myself and the honorable Senator from Kansas, 
and our personal friends," he emphatically 
declared, "I have only to say this. I have not 
now, I had not then, I never had, and I never 
expect to have, one particle of interest in the 
Burlington and Missouri River Railroad Com- 
pany's road or its extension ; nor do I know who 
the persons are who are pecuniarily interested 
in that organization ".^^'^ 

Boynton's allegation relative to the sale of 
the Cherokee Indian lands was examined with 
equal frankness, since his former explanation 
on this point had been made in executive ses- 
sion, and he now wished the facts to be made a 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 241 

matter of public record. He briefly reviewed 
the history of treaties with the Cherokees con- 
cerning their lands in Kansas, and especially 
the treaty under which the sale made by him as 
Secretary of the Interior was negotiated. This 
treaty provided that the land should be sold to 
two classes of people. The white settlers living 
on the Indian lands, although trespassers, were 
to have the right to purchase the land on which 
they lived at its appraised value, exclusive of 
improvements. The remainder of the lands 
might be sold in subdivisions to the highest 
bidder, but not for less than an average of one 
dollar and a quarter an acre ; or it might be sold 
in a body for cash to a responsible party or 
parties at not less than one dollar an acre. 

In pursuance of this treaty, Harlan declared, 
he had conducted the sale. The Attorney 
General had afterward written an opinion hold- 
ing that the treaty required the payment of 
cash in hand at the time of sale, whereas only 
part cash had been paid. Senator Harlan stated 
that he had been intimately connected with the 
making of the treaty and he knew positively 
that the term ''cash" had been inserted "not to 
prevent a time sale, but to prevent a sale of the 
land for certified Indian indebtedness. ' ' There- 
fore, the contract ''was made in strict pursu- 
ance of the understanding of the treaty had by 
both contracting parties at the time the treaty 

16 



242 JAMES HARLAN 

was negotiated." Furthermore, he showed by 
quoting the prices of similar adjoining land 
that one dollar an acre was all the tract in 
question was worth or at least all it would bring 
in the market. This fact had been corroborated 
by his successor, Secretary Browning, after a 
careful investigation. Repeating, in conclusion, 
what he had said in connection with the Burling- 
ton and Missouri River extension, he declared : 
' ' I had not at the time, have not now, never had 
and never expect to have, one cent's worth of 
interest in the subject matter of the treaty. '"^^"^ 

Before relinquishing the floor Senator Harlan 
paid his respects to the ''people hanging 
around Washington w^riting for newspapers, 
styling themselves correspondents, and occupy- 
ing seats in that gallery by the courtesy of the 
Senate, who, when they are unable to hire them- 
selves to advocate measures involving appro- 
priations from the public Treasury, endeavor 
to teach the parties in interest their importance 
by denunciation and abuse. "^^^ 

About this same time there reappeared in 
various newspapers hints of the alleged wealth 
which Harlan had acquired while Secretary of 
the Interior. Late in February there was 
printed in the Davenport Gazette a letter from 
Washington replying to these insinuations and 
giving the following inventory of the property 
owned by James Harlan: 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 243 

That gentleman is not wealthy. He does not own a 
dollar's worth of bonds, stocks, debentures, railroad or 
bank shares, nor any description of scrip. He does 
not own the Washington residence. That property 
was purchased more than four years ago, mainly on 
long credit, at six per cent. The purchase was mainly 
effected with the proceeds of a little property which 
fell to Mrs. Harlan from two deceased relatives. Very 
properly the residence when paid for will be held in 
Mrs. Harlan's name and right. Mr. Harlan has not a 
foot of real estate outside of Iowa, and owns nothing 
there except his Mount Pleasant property, a sixty 
acre farm in Henry county bought several years ago 
at four dollars per acre, and three hundred and twenty 
acres of wild prairie in Guthrie county. The value of 
the whole of his real estate possessions may be in- 
ferred from the fact that the total annual taxes there- 
on — State, county, local and municipal — as shown 
by the tax receipts for last year, exhibited to me with 
letters of the agents, attending to the business, is less 
than one hundred and fifty doUars.^i'^ 

As soon as this statement of his financial 
condition came to Senator Harlan's attention 
he wrote a letter to the editor of the Gazette 
which is significant in view of the frequency 
with which the charge of personal enrichment 
through official position was made during sub- 
sequent years. He wrote, in part : 

Although I do not admit the right of any one to pry 
into my private affairs, and have uniformly declined 
to notice the ridiculous stories circulated by political 



244 JAMES HARLAN 

enemies — sanctioned, sometimes, by envious and pos- 
sibly disappointed political friends — I cannot com- 
plain of this letter, for it has evidently been indited 
by the spirit of friendship; but as it is not entirely 
accurate, it is best perhaps that the errors, however 
small, should be corrected. 

1st. I do own bank stock in the First National Bank 
of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, to the amount of fifteen hun- 
dred dollars; and bonds on the Territory (now State) 
of Nebraska to the amount of twenty-five hundred 
dollars. 

2d. My farm of about fifty acres in Henry county, 
near Mt. Pleasant, cost me more than "four dollars 
per acre. ' ' I bought it eight or ten years ago for just 
two thousand dollars. 

3d. In addition to the three hundred and twenty 
acres of land in Cass county (not "Guthrie"), bought 
of the United States at one dollar and quarter per 
acre before I entered the Senate, I own eighty acres 
of unimproved land in Henry county, which cost me 
four or five dollars per acre. 

4th. The taxes levied and collected on my entire 
property last year was a little less than one hundred 
and seventy-five dollars. 

The other statements in the letter are correct. It is 
true that I own no property outside of Iowa and have 
had no income worth mentioning, except my salary as 
Senator. — In short that I am not rich, chiefiy, as I 
think, because I have never desired to be, and could 
not take advantage of opportunities to acquire prop- 
erty, as it seemed to me, without neglecting my public 
duties, which I deemed to be paramount.^-*^ 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 245 

The bill to repeal the Tenure of Office Act 
was the first important measure to command 
Senator Harlan's attention during the first 
session of the Forty-first Congress which con- 
vened on March 4, 1869. The Senator opposed 
the repeal of the law for two reasons : he did not 
believe that tenure of office should be subject to 
the will of the executive in the general govern- 
ment any more than it was in the State govern- 
ments, and he thought the Senate should not 
shirk its responsibility in the making of ap- 
pointments."-^ The Indian appropriation bill 
was naturally the subject on which he made the 
most frequent remarks, since he was now chair- 
man of the Committee on Indian Affairs. These 
two bills, with a few others dealing with rail- 
roads and internal improvements, were suffi- 
cient to keep him busy until April 10th, the day 
of adjournment. 

The long second session of the Forty-first 
Congress passed in much the same manner, 
without any conspicuous speeches from Senator 
Harlan. He nevertheless was active in the 
enactment of much important legislation; for, 
besides presenting scores of petitions, bills, 
resolutions, and reports, and speaking on a wide 
range of topics, he assumed special responsi- 
bility for a number of bills originating in or 
referred to the several committees of which he 
was a member. Thus a resolution for a Joint 



246 JAMES HARLAN 

Committee on Indian Affairs, a bill to provide 
for the sale of the Osage Indian reservation, a 
joint resolution in relation to the Northern 
Pacific Eailroad Company, the Indian appro- 
priation bill, and bills relative to the Southern 
Pacific Railroad and other western railroads, 
were subjects to which he devoted special atten- 
tion. But there is little in his remarks which 
throws new light on his attitude toward these 
questions. 

The session had scarcely begun, however, 
when H. V. Boynton renewed his series of 
libelous allegations in the Cincinnati Gazette. 
This time Harlan did not find it necessary to 
make a public defense, for immediately there 
were a number of influential newspaper editors 
and correspondents who entered the lists in his 
behalf. ^ ' We have made no attempt at answer- 
ing the attack, ' ' said Editor Clarkson, ' ' because 
we did not deem it necessary to defend Senator 
Harlan before the Iowa people from the as- 
saults of a man who appears to peddle his 
literary labors to the highest bidders. . . . 
They know the men they have sent to Washing- 
ton, and have confidence in them, and do not 
propose to listen for a moment to the hired 
assaults of buccaneers as small and weak as the 
little man Boynton. "^^^ 

In the same issue of the Des Moines news- 
paper appeared a long letter from Washington 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 247 

replying to the new series of charges which 
Boynton had made. In the first place Boynton 
had called attention to the fact that Secretary 
Harlan's son had been employed as a messenger 
in the Department at a salary of eight hundred 
and forty dollars per annum. He next charged 
Harlan with having appropriated two fine 
horses belonging to the Government, and with 
having put upon the pay-roll of the Interior 
Department a coachman, a footman, and a 
dining-room servant in his own personal em- 
ploy. Secretary Harlan had, he asserted, put 
in a bill for six hundred and fifty dollars for 
fancy stationery, visiting cards, party invita- 
tions, pen knives, and other fashionable trinkets 
which had been used by his family. Again, 
Boynton charged that coal had been taken from 
the Interior Department to heat the Harlan 
home, which, furthermore, was partly furnished 
with furniture from the Department. Adding 
all of these things together, he figured that 
James Harlan's income as Secretary of the 
Interior was a little over twelve thousand five 
hundred dollars. 

The charge concerning Harlan's refusal to 
accept a certain section of the Pacific Railroad 
also seems to have been renewed by Boynton at 
this time and embellished with new features. 
He insinuated that the president of the company 
constructing the road had sought a confidential 



248 JAMES HARLAN 

interview with Secretary Harlan and by the 
application of certain influences had induced 
him to withdraw his refusal. Finally, Boynton 
charged that Harlan and D. N. Cooley had 
pushed through a contract by which certain 
Delaware Indian lands had been sold to a rail- 
road company, in spite of the fact that a higher 
bid had been offered by a private individual, 
and thus the Government had been swindled out 
of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. 

James Harlan's defender in the letter written 
from Washington took up these charges one by 
one and answered them with frankness and di- 
rectness. He admitted that the Secretary's son, 
W. A. Harlan, had served for seventy-three 
days as a messenger. But he received the same 
pay as other messengers and only for the time 
during which he served. Furthermore, it was 
not at all unusual for the sons of Cabinet mem- 
bers to be given clerkships and similar positions 
in the various departments. The charge re- 
garding the horses, the coachman, and the other 
servants, was pronounced false. The Govern- 
ment had ceased to have any use for the horses 
in question and so Secretary Harlan had bought 
them at their appraised value. It was the cus- 
tom of the Government to pay for the services 
of a driver for Cabinet members, but aside from 
this one man, no personal servant of Secretary 
Harlan received pay from the Department. 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 249 

The stationery for which the bill had been sub- 
mitted had been entirely for the use of the 
Department, and all bills for private stationery, 
cards, and invitations had been carefully kept 
separate and paid out of the Secretary's own 
pocket. 

To prove that Boynton's charge concerning 
the use of Department coal w^as entirely slander- 
ous the correspondent produced a sworn state- 
ment from the chief engineer stating that no 
coal had ever been taken from the Interior 
Department to the Harlan home. The insinua- 
tion relative to furniture was equally ground- 
less, since it was the custom of Secretaries to 
have offices in their homes, the equipment of 
which was provided by their respective depart- 
ments. In this case, at the expiration of his 
service Secretary Harlan had purchased all the 
furniture and fixtures thus used at their ap- 
praised value. A sworn statement from the 
president of the construction company exoner- 
ated Harlan from the insinuation regarding the 
Pacific Railroad; and besides, it was a matter 
of public record that it was due to President 
Johnson and not to Secretary Harlan that the 
order had finally been given to accept the dis- 
puted section of road. The last allegation, 
concerning the sale of the Delaware Indian 
lands, was without basis also, because the only 
bid which was higher than that offered by the 



250 JAMES HARLAN 

railroad company had been withdrawn before 
the date of sale, against the protest of Secretary 
Harlan, who only acquiesced in the withdrawal 
upon receiving legal advice that it w^as legiti- 
mate/"^-^ 

Thus each of the accusations made against 
James Harlan in connection with his adminis- 
tration of the office of Secretary of the Interior 
was fairly and squarely met by facts w^hich were 
a matter of record, and proven to be without 
foundation. Nevertheless, the harm had been 
done, and no amount of denial and proof could 
wholly dislodge the prejudice which these ac- 
cusations implanted in the minds of many of 
the people of Iowa. 

An interesting side-light on this attack by 
H. V. Boynton as well as on the political situa- 
tion in Iowa, showing that even at this early 
date plans were being laid for the senatorial 
contest of 1872, is to be found in a letter w^hich 
Senator Harlan wrote to Representative Wil- 
liam B. Allison on January 5, 1870. The 
Senator asserted his firm belief that the story 
to the effect that Allison and James F. Wilson 
had formed a coalition to control the succeeding 
senatorial elections in Iowa was absolutely 
without foundation. His constant denial of this 
rumor, he said, ''may have laid the foundation 
for the opposite story .... alleging that 
you and I have formed a combination of the 



CHARGES OF DISHONESTY 251 

same purport, which we both know to be false. ' ' 
''The report," continued Senator Harlan, 
''that you secretly incited the recent attack 
made on me by the Cincinnati Gazette, is no 
more painful to you than it is to me." He be- 
lieved, however, that the Boynton article had 
"earmarks of an Iowa paternity, and of polit- 
ical forethought, such as the time and places of 
its publication, at Cincinnati — as a blind — in 
a Republican paper, to give it force, — and its 
almost immediate, and simultaneous reproduc- 
tion in Dubuque, Davenport, Burlington, and 
Keokuk, (in the Copperhead organs from neces- 
sity) .... its avowed purpose being to 
affect the senatorial election. "^2* 



XXIII 

Defense of President Geant 

The last important speech made by James 
Harlan in the Senate of the United States, and 
in many respects the most famous of his post- 
bellum speeches, was his brilliant defense of 
President Grant against the attacks of Senators 
Sumner and Schurz in connection with the San 
Domingo affair. The speech was not a long one, 
but it went directly to the point at issue and 
resulted in turning the tide which seemed to be 
running strongly against the President. . 

The debate began in the third session of the 
Forty-first Congress when a resolution was 
introduced calling for the appointment of com- 
missioners to investigate the relations of the 
United States with the republic of Dominica. 
It appears that during the summer of 1869 
President Grant received information to the 
effect that the Dominican government was 
favorably disposed toward annexation to the 
United States, or at least that it was willing 
to lease Samana Bay. Consequently, a United 
States vessel bearing a confidential agent was 

252 



DEFENSE OF PRESIDENT GRANT 253 

sent to the island. The agent made investiga- 
tions, submitted a report, and finally two 
treaties were drawn up between the United 
States and the Dominican republic. While 
these treaties were pending the President in- 
structed certain naval officers to maintain peace 
in San Domingo and if necessary to repel any 
invasion by a foreign power. These were the 
facts upon which the opposition, led by Sumner 
and Schurz, based their assaults upon President 
Grant, charging him with belligerent interven- 
tion without the authority of Congress.^-' 

The debate, begun in December, 1870, was 
carried over into the first session of the Forty- 
second Congress where it was continued with 
renewed vigor. On March 29, 1871, Senator 
Harlan took the floor in reply to the long and 
eloquent speeches of Sumner and Schurz. After 
tributes to the venerable Senator from Massa- 
chusetts and his able and eloquent supporter 
from Missouri, he proceeded to examine the 
charges made against Grant — charges which, 
if substantiated, were generally recognized 
as making out **a case for impeachment 
of a much more serious nature than that worked 
up against President Johnson." 

"You may travel through these long columns 
of extracts and comments which required sev- 
eral hours for their delivery," said Senator 
Harlan, ' ' and you will find the whole case stated 



254 JAMES HARLAN 

in that brief sentence, that the President in- 
structed the officers of the Navy to maintain the 
peace in Dominica within the limits of that re- 
public, and, if need be, to repel foreign invasion 
during the pendency of the treaties." But, in 
Harlan's opinion, there was nothing in these 
instructions to justify the charge of belligerent 
intervention. Moreover, no act of hostility or 
force had been committed. The two Senators 
in the opposition maintained that the President 
''had no right to use force to protect the exist- 
ing Government with which we were at the time 
in incipient treaty relations." On the other 
hand, there were many Senators ''equally 
learned" who asserted that the United States 
did have the right to protect the territory which 
it seemed about to acquire. It was, therefore, a 
question of the relative weight of authority, and 
the fact remained that no force had been used. 
Senator Sumner here interrupted to call at- 
tention to the fact that the real cause for de- 
nouncing the President was that he had seized 
the power to declare war which belonged to 
Congress. "The Constitution clothes Congress 
with the power to declare war," said Senator 
Harlan in reply, "which these honorable Sena- 
tors think must precede every act of war. Now, 
let us see what has been the understanding of 
that subject during the whole history of the 
Government." Indian wars had almost in- 



DEFENSE OF PRESIDENT GRANT 255 

variably been carried on without formal acts by 
Congress ; an army had been marched into Utah 
to suppress an armed force without a declara- 
tion of war ; ' ' the very first great battle of the 
Mexican war was fought before Congress took 
notice of our controversy with Mexico"; and 
even in the late war against the southern States 
war was begun in a manner not specifically pro- 
vided for in the Constitution. 

A lively colloquy then ensued between Harlan 
and the two Senators, and he succeeded in driv- 
ing them into corners where they were forced to 
admit that the President might provide for the 
protection of United States territory and even 
initiate war measures in advance of an act by 
Congress. Senator Sherman at this point in- 
sisted that Harlan be permitted to continue 
without further interruption, for, he said, "I 
think, with a single remark or two, he has prob- 
ably exploded most of their speeches, and I 
should like to hear him go on. ' ' Thereupon the 
Iowa Senator was permitted to continue with- 
out interruption his citation of precedents for 
the President 's action. 

He then turned to the motives which animated 
the attacks on President Grant. The opposition 
were perfectly willing that Grant should receive 
full glory and praise for his military career, but 
they wished to rob him as President of the con- 
fidence of the American people, simply because 



256 JAMES HARLAN 

he had offended them. They were endeavoring 
to place either themselves or some friend whom 
they esteemed more highly for his civil attain- 
ments in the executive chair. Furthermore, 
Senator Schurz had had a quarrel with the 
President because a few postmasters in Mis- 
souri were appointed without his approval. At 
this assertion Schurz leaped to his feet with an 
emphatic denial of the obvious conclusion that 
he was influenced in this case by such petty and 
personal considerations. Mr. Harlan replied 
that he had not stated any such conclusion. 
''Without the patience to wait till I drew my 
conclusion, he drew a conclusion for himself, a 
conclusion, I doubt not, that has been drawn 
long since by a majority of the American peo- 
ple." What he had intended to say was that 
probably the Missouri Senator was not so free 
from human frailties but that he would be un- 
consciously affected by a sense of personal 
injury. 

After refuting certain technical points in the 
charges against the President, and showing that 
the reasons which Sumner and Schurz had ad- 
vanced for their arraignment of Grant were not 
real or valid. Senator Harlan closed by moving 
that the resolutions of censure be laid on the 
table. He deprecated the whole discussion, 
since it had obviously been aroused for political 
purposes in advance of the report which was 



DEFENSE OF PRESIDENT GRANT 257 

soon to be made by the commissioners appoint- 
ed to investigate the affair. President Grant's 
only offense was his ''desire to preserve the 
peace in a neighboring island, a desire to pre- 
vent rebellion in the republic of San Domingo" 
and "to prevent the black republic of Hayti 
from extinguishing its weaker neighbor." 
After some further debate the motion to lay the 
resolution on the table was adopted by a vote 
of thirty-nine to sixteen — much to the evident 
chagrin of Senators Sumner and Schurz.^^'^ 

"In the Senate, on Wednesday last, Senator 
Sumner made ship-wreck of his ill-advised and 
ill-starred expedition against President Grant 
and the Republican party," was the jubilant 
comment of a Des Moines editor, "and it must 
be confessed his first campaign closed with re- 
marked discredit to himself. . . . His three 
weeks of battle and bushwhacking .... 
was brought to a sudden end by Senator Harlan, 
of this State, who, on Wednesday evening, after 
a powerful speech in reply to Sumner and 
Schurz, and in support of the President, brought 
the whole question to its final issue by moving 
that the Sumner resolutions in arraignment of 
Grant be laid upon the table. "^^"^ A few days 
later the same writer took a further occasion to 
commend Senator Harlan's speech and congrat- 
ulate the people of the State upon the triumph 
which their representative had achieved. "It 

17 



258 JAMES HARLAN 

required no little courage," he declared, "as it 
certainly required much ability, to take up the 
leadership of the fight against men of the 
stature of Sumner and Schurz. But this our 
quiet-mannered Senator, without time for prep- 
aration, presumed to do, and the sweeping 
power with which he moved forward in the ef- 
fort is shown in the success attending it."^^^ 

The speech met with praise all over the coun- 
try as well as in Iowa, and it was generally 
accepted as the strongest defense of President 
Grant made during the debate on the San Do- 
mingo question. "His speech had in some parts 
a rather partisan character, ' ' declared the New 
York Times /^ and was effective beyond expecta- 
tion when he took the floor. He pinned the 
cause and the object of the speeches so fast to 
their authors that the attempt to escape was 
futile."^-'* Even the Washington Chronicle, a 
distinctly Sumner paper, recognized the pun- 
gency and force of Senator Harlan's reply .^2*' 

The joy with which certain of President 
Grant 's most ardent admirers hailed the speech 
and its result is illustrated by the following in- 
cident related by a personal friend of James 
Harlan : 

Old Zaeh Chandler used to delight to tell of General 
Sherman's part in the triumph. AVhile ^Ir. Harlan 
was speaking, the crowd of congressmen and others, 
filling the senate chamber, pressed forward until 



DEFENSE OF PRESIDENT GRANT 259 

General Sherman, rigidly erect, his arms folded, his 
wonderful, eagle eye flashing and gleaming as if in 
battle, stood but a yard away from Mr. Harlan watch- 
ing him intently. The moment it was over, Sherman 
was gone. Zach Chandler called a cab and drove 
rapidly to the White House. But Old Tecumseh was 
there just ahead of him and, bouncing upstairs and 
into the President's room, the delighted General 
shouted : ' ' Grant, Harlan 's done it ! He knocked them 
this way, and he knocked them that way ! ' ' and Sher- 
man swung out each arm in succession as if he himself 
were slaying great hecatombs of lately living foes.-^^^ 

The San Domingo speech in defense of Presi- 
dent Grant is sometimes referred to as the 
culmination of James Harlan's forensic career. 
It is not to be classed with his constructive 
speeches of the ante-bellum period, either in ex- 
haustiveness or logical arrangement, but its 
extemporaneous character reveals the Senator's 
debating power as his more definitely prepared 
speeches do not, proving the value of the train- 
ing received during college days at ''Old As- 
bury". 



XXIV 

The Harlan- Allison Contest 

Fully two years before the meeting of the 
General Assembly in January, 1872, as has 
already been seen, wires were being laid for the 
manipulation of the senatorship which would be 
made vacant by the expiration of James Har- 
lan's term in 1873.^^- William B. Allison, who 
in 1870 had been defeated for the senatorship 
by George G. Wright, was chosen to make the 
race against the man who had served Iowa in 
the Senate since 1855. The discussion thus 
quietly begun in the circle of party leaders 
smouldered for more than a year and then burst 
into flame in the summer of 1871.^^^ 

The chief cause of the sudden appearance of 
the senatorial question at this time was an in- 
sidious attempt to weaken Senator Harlan's 
influence by an appeal to sectarian prejudice. 
Rumors had reached certain members of the 
Methodist clergy to the effect that Harlan was 
delinquent in some of the things considered 
requisite to good standing in the church. In 
response to an inquiry on this point Dr. John P. 



THE HARLAN-ALLISON CONTEST 261 

Newman, pastor of the church which Senator 
Harlan attended in Washington, wrote a letter 
to an Iowa minister vouching for Harlan's regu- 
lar attendance at church and his influence "in 
the right direction". He also alluded to Har- 
lan's influence with the President and with his 
fellow Senators, and urged that he be given 
hearty support for reelection.^^^ 

This letter, referred to throughout the cam- 
paign as the ''Newman Letter", came into the 
hands of the editor of the Dubuque Herald, a 
Democratic journal, and was published late in 
June. A controversy, violent out of all propor- 
tion to the significance of the incident, immedi- 
ately ensued. It was asserted that the letter 
had been lithographed and widely circulated 
among the Methodist clergy in Iowa, in the ef- 
fort to array the membership of the Methodist 
church solidly under the Harlan banner in the 
senatorial contest. Dr. Newman indignantly 
denied that he was responsible for the litho- 
graphed letter, if there were any such, and de- 
clared that he had simply written as friend to 
friend without any thought of publicity. James 
Harlan also wrote a public letter defending the 
right of Newman to write a private letter advo- 
cating the election of a friend, and protesting 
against the use which was being made of the 
letter to arouse opposition to him on sectarian 
grounds.^^^ 



262 JAMES HARLAN 

It is difficult to find anything in the Newman 
letter to justify the storm of indignation which 
it brought down upon the head of Senator 
Harlan. But it came to men eager for a pretext 
to transfer their allegiance, and in spite of a 
vigorous defense by his friends the letter fur- 
nished his enemies with ammunition for bitter 
attacks covering a period of several weeks and 
had a distinctly harmful effect upon Senator 
Harlan's campaign. The persistency with 
which the newspapers continued the discussion 
is an indication of the readiness of politicians 
of the time to seize upon any argument, how^ever 
small, against their opponents. 

The Newman letter controversy was the open- 
ing skirmish in a series of charges and counter- 
charges which makes the senatorial campaign of 
1871-1872 one of the most notable political 
contests in the history of Iowa. James Harlan 
and William B. Allison had long been accepted 
as the two leading candidates, although there 
were minor local "booms" for William W. 
Belknap, Samuel J. Kirkwood, Grenville M. 
Dodge, James F. Wilson, and others. The 
contest between the two men soon developed 
into a struggle which was based on personal 
considerations rather than on differences in 
policy. 

Before the excitement over the Newman let- 
ter had wholly subsided there developed among 



THE HARLAN-ALLISON CONTEST 263 

the German- Americans of the river towns a 
movement headed by Theodore Guelich, an in- 
fluential German editor, aggressively opposed 
to Harlan's return to the Senate.-"'^'^ At about 
the same time, also, H. V. Boynton savagely 
renewed his former assaults in the Cincinnati 
Gazette. Even many of the more generous op- 
ponents of Harlan resented this outside inter- 
ference. 

As the weeks passed by, the senatorial suc- 
cession became more and more the absorbing 
topic of political discussion. Several minor 
candidates announced themselves, each attract- 
ing more or less local support, and causing con- 
siderable anxiety in the Harlan and Allison 
camps. James F. Wilson of Fairfield, after 
much urging, consented to the use of his name 
and soon came to be regarded as the most for- 
midable of the group of lesser candidates. The 
sectional question also played its usual part, the 
northern portion of the State insisting that it 
deserved the senatorship in view of the fact 
that it had never sent a Republican to the 
United States Senate and the southern section 
had been especially favored in all State offices. 
The sectional aspect of the contest naturally 
caused Harlan's supporters to look with serious 
misgivings upon the Wilson boom, since Wil- 
son 's following must come largely from Harlan 
territory.^^'^ 



264 JAMES HARLAN 

The campaign which preceded the fall elec- 
tions for State officers and members of the 
legislature was largely colored by the senatorial 
question, and after the overwhelming victory of 
the Republican party both the Harlan and the 
Allison managers claimed to have secured the 
control of the legislature for their respective 
candidates. Neither side, however, felt suf- 
ficiently confident of success to allow any 
arguments against their opponents to pass un- 
noticed. All of the charges which had ever been 
made against James Harlan were now revived 
and many new ones, equally without foundation, 
were brought forward ; while William B. Allison 
was subjected to every criticism for which there 
was the slightest pretext. But it should be re- 
membered that the candidates took no part in 
the war of personalities which followed, except 
to answer some of the most violent accusations, 
nor were they responsible for the bitterness of 
the campaign conducted by their admirers. ^^^ 

The principal charges made against Harlan 
were, as might be expected, in connection with 
his ill-fated service as Secretary of the Interior. 
The oft-repeated allegation concerning the 
Cherokee Indian land sale was again brought 
out with as much assurance as though it had not 
many times been amply refuted; as were also 
the charges in relation to the Delaware Indian 
lands, the alleged enrichment of Harlan while 



THE HARLAN-ALLISON CONTEST 265 

Secretary, and the payment of his son for ser- 
vices as messenger which, it was charged, had 
never been rendered.^^^ Several new charges 
now appeared for the first time. The one caus- 
ing the greatest comment was to the effect that, 
contrary to law, Secretary Harlan had ordered 
the names of several hundred Indians to be 
placed upon the pension roll, and that thus the 
Government had been swindled out of a large 
amount of money.^^*^ 

This charge, like most of the others, was 
made by H. V. Boynton, and it met with a 
vigorous denial by Senator Harlan. He show^ed 
that his reexamination of the Indian claims in 
question was in the interest of justice and fair- 
ness to the claimants and of protection to the 
Government. Although it was the opinion of 
many competent officials in the Pension Office 
that these claims were valid, he was not willing 
that they should be paid without an investiga- 
tion on the ground. Consequently he sent a 
trusted agent to visit the Indians, instructing 
him to "examine each case, take down the sub- 
stance of the new evidence in writing, pay those 
who were found to be legally entitled, take their 
receipts in due form, and report those not found 
entitled to pensions under the law to be stricken 
from the rolls." Before the special agent made 
his report, Harlan had retired from the Cabinet, 
and hence could in no way be held respon- 



266 JAMES HARLAN 

sible for the final result. Furthermore, the 
special agent 's accounts had been audited by the 
Treasury Department and not a voucher was 
thrown out.^"*^ It would seem that this frank 
reply, supported as it was, a few days later, by 
a publication of all the official documents con- 
nected with the affair,^^- would have closed the 
controversy ; but, instead, it was continued with 
greater intensity than before, and was raging 
up to the day of the legislative caucus. 

Another new attack upon James Harlan's 
administration of the Interior Department ap- 
peared in a Washington letter signed "Old 
Guard ' '. Here it was asserted that Harlan had 
secured the passage of a joint resolution divert- 
ing a large sum of money for feeding and 
clothing the Indians in the Southwest ; that this 
money had been wrongfully expended under 
the direction of Elijah Sells, the Indian Super- 
intendent for that region, and with the 
knowledge and consent of Secretary Harlan. 
Enormous prices, as high as eight dollars a 
bushel, had been paid for grain, and a portion 
of the funds had been expended in Iowa during 
the senatorial campaign against Kirkwood in 
the fall of 1865.^" Senator Harlan was ably 
supported by Josiah B. Grinnell in repelling 
this unwarranted attack, proving that there was^ 
nothing fraudulent in the transaction and that, 
even if there had been, it could not be laid at 



THE HARLAN-ALLISON CONTEST 267 

Harlan's door, since it was neither just nor 
customary to hold Cabinet officers accountable 
for the malfeasance of subordinates not ap- 
pointed by them.^^^ 

But alleged corruption while Secretary of the 
Interior was not the only argument used against 
the reelection of Harlan during this heated 
contest. On the day before the convening of the 
General Assembly the Iowa State Register, 
which had suddenly deserted the Harlan stand- 
ard after years of loyal support, published a 
concise list of reasons why James Harlan 
should not be returned to the Senate, which 
summarizes most of the charges made at one 
time or another during the campaign. 

In the first place it was asserted that Harlan 
had lived almost entirely in Washington for 
eighteen years and therefore was not sufficient- 
ly acquainted with the spirit and needs of the 
people of Iowa to represent them faithfully. 
Then the sectional argument was urged that 
there had been, in all those years, no Senator 
from the northern part of the State. It was 
charged, also, that Harlan was a disturbing 
element in the Iowa delegation at Washington, 
that he had assumed a dictatorial attitude, and 
thus there was a lack of that harmony which 
should prevail in the delegation in order that 
the interests of the State should be promoted. 
Again, it was alleged that Harlan and his 



268 JAMES HARLAN 

friends had made his interests paramount to 
the success of the Republican party, and that in 
many districts at the past election they had 
labored to defeat Republican legislators who 
were opposed to him. 

Finally, there was an appeal to the ill-feeling 
engendered by the contest of six years before 
when it had been asserted that Harlan had de- 
feated Kirkwood by improper means. ''An ex- 
Secretary of the Interior", was the editor's 
parting shot, "and a United States Senator of 
eighteen years ' standing — a minister of the 
gospel appealing to a church organization to 
sustain him in a political contest — a Senator 
who has not, in eighteen years of political and 
ecclesiastical service, been able to make a repu- 
tation which he is willing to leave to his chil- 
dren and his children's children . . . . 
should avoid the very appearance of evil, and 
especially should he avoid the help of question- 
able Republicans, and the help of Democrats 
traveling over the State in his interest, and the 
counsel of Democrats in the rooms which are 
his headquarters in the present contest. "^"'^ 

Apparently the insidious charges which had 
for six years been so persistently circulated, in 
spite of their proven falsity, worked like a slow 
poison upon the minds of many fair-minded 
people in Iowa, and prejudiced them to such an 
extent that they gradually came to believe 



THE HARLAN-ALLISON CONTEST 269 

Harlan unsuited for the position. As to liis 
confirmed enemies, their motive is too obvious 
to need explanation. Whatever the animus, the 
fact remains that in no other political campaign 
in Iowa has a candidate been subjected to such 
caustic criticism. 

Senator Harlan remained in Washington 
until late in December and then journeyed to 
Des Moines in order that he might personally 
conduct his own campaign. Whatever may 
have been his attitude at former elections, there 
can be no doubt that this time he earnestly de- 
sired to be returned to the Senate and put forth 
his best energies to attain that end. On ar- 
riving in Des Moines he took rooms in which he 
might hold conferences with his followers, and 
he issued a public address to the people of Iowa 
replying once more to the principal charges 
made against him.^^*^ But all his efforts were in 
vain. A vindication was denied him. 

On the evening of Wednesday, January 10, 
1872, the Republicans of the General Assembly 
met in caucus and, after two unsuccessful bal- 
lots, chose William B. Allison as their candi- 
date for United States Senator by the narrow 
margin of two votes, but with a majority of 
twenty-three over James Harlan.^-*" One week 
later the General Assembly gave official con- 
firmation of the choice and Allison was declared 
duly elected.^^^ 



270 JAMES HARLAN 

*'The surging, seething, tumultuous crowds 
who have poured through the halls of the Sav- 
ery for the last six or eight days have dispersed 
to their homes", wrote a correspondent to a 
paper which throughout the campaign was 
loyal in Harlan's support. ''The Senatorial 
contest, just ended, has been perhaps the long- 
est and the most intense of any ever witnessed 
in the State, and there will be a general feeling 
of relief that it is over, and of hope that what- 
ever of bitterness it has engendered may speed- 
ily pass away." Senator Harlan, said the 
correspondent, took his defeat gracefully. ' ' He 
called upon his successful competitor soon after 
the caucus, congratulated him upon his triumph, 
remarking that he could not have been beaten 
by anyone whom he could congratulate more 
sincerely."""^*'' Other newspaper writers, the 
editor of the State Register included, also paid 
tribute to the dignity and good-will with which 
Harlan accepted his defeat. 

Thus was the curtain rung down on the of- 
ficial career of James Harlan. Rising superior 
to the resentment natural to a man of strong 
feelings and acute sensibilities, though still 
smarting under the blows which he felt he had 
not merited, he courteously greeted the coming 
man and unobtrusively went his way. He was 
in the full vigor of manhood, being at the time 
only fifty-one years of age. There is always a 



THE HARLAN-ALLISON CONTEST 271 

touch of pathos in the retirement of a man who 
has long rendered efficient service in public 
office. In Harlan's case the disappointments of 
public life are revealed in the advice which he 
gave a young friend on the evening of the State 
elections in October, 1871. On that evening 
Mr. W. I. Babb of Mt. Pleasant, later a District 
Judge, remained down town until long after 
midnight to hear the reports of election returns. 
On his way home he stopped at the telegraph 
office to learn the latest news. The only person 
in the little office besides the operator was 
Senator Harlan, whom he found looking over 
telegrams, many of which told of the defeat of 
his friends who were candidates for seats in the 
legislature. Mr. Babb inquired as to the nature 
of the returns, and the Senator handed him the 
dispatches one by one, commenting upon their 
unwelcome significance. Then after sitting in 
silence for a few moments he turned to the 
young man and said : 

While you're a Democrat and I'm a Republican, 
we have never allowed our differences to interfere 
with our friendly relations. There are a few words I 
want to say to you now, and I'm going to talk to you 
as freely as though you were my own son. Whatever 
you do in the years before you, never allow yourself 
to be tempted to enter politics so far as to accept 
political office. At least, never until you are ready 
to retire from your profession and are fortunate 



272 JAMES HARLAN 

enough to have ample means so that you need have 
no anxiety about money matters. 

Take my own case as an illustration. After leaving 
college I spent several years in educational work ; then 
I studied law and, on being admitted to the bar, I 
practiced law for a time, and with a fair measure of 
success. I don't think I am egotistical, but I believe 
I could have succeeded as a lawyer. The presidency 
of our little University with its opportunities for use- 
fulness first lured me from my profession, and the 
Senatorship closed all avenues of return to the bar. 
Many a time during those first years in Washington I 
longed to go back to Iowa and take up my chosen 
w^ork where I had left it. 

I have had a greater measure of success in political 
life than comes to the average man who enters politics. 
I have been in public service nearly twenty years. 
. . . I may not have acted wisely on all the im- 
portant questions that have come to me for consider- 
ation. In looking back over my public career I can 
see where I would act differently; but I am conscious 
that in every instance I did and said what seemed to 
me to be wisest and best. ... If during this 
period of my life I had given the same degree of devo- 
tion, energy and industry to my chosen profession, 
I am vain enough to believe I could have achieved a 
fair degree of success at the bar, and could have pro- 
vided a fair competency for myself and family. In 
addition to that, I would now command the respect 
and confidence of my fellow-citizens and would have 
had before me a bright and happy prospect, with a 
promise of still greater achievements. 



THE HARLAN-ALLISON CONTEST 273 

I went into politics under what seemed to be un- 
usually favorable circumstances ; and yet, what is the 
result? I am now only a little over fifty years of age 
— in the very vigor and prime of life. If I am de- 
feated for reelection — as seems probable from these 
dispatches — there is not a thing on earth that I am 
fitted to do. At my time of life I could not hope to 
achieve anything by reentering my profession — be- 
ginning at the foot of the ladder — and I have no 
training or experience in any line of business. 

Instead of having the respect and confidence of my 
fellows, to which my faithfulness to public duty would 
seem to entitle me, nearly half the people of Iowa 
seem to believe me a very bad man — if not a rascal — 
and the rest seem not to know whether I am good or 
bad. The Democrats, you know, have been taught to 
believe me bad ; and a large element in my own party 
have had this view urged upon them of late until they, 
too, have come to look upon me with distrust. 

This is the reward politics offers for nearly twenty 
years of faithful and measurably resultful service ! 
My friend, I do not say this with any feeling of bitter- 
ness. If I am defeated, my fate will simply be that of 
others who enter political life. I only refer to it to 
impress upon your mind this friendly injunction: 
Whatever you do, if you value contentment and hap- 
piness, never enter upon a political life. Its rewards 
are purchased at too great a price. ^^^ 

In the gloom of that October night, Senator 
Harlan magnified the effects of the many and 
oft-repeated attacks upon Ms good name, and 

18 



274 JAMES HARLAN 

minimized liis own powers of usefulness outside 
of public life, as the remaining chapters of this 
work clearly show. The Senator returned to 
Washington and for the remainder of his term 
took his customary part in shaping legislation. 
At the close of the session he stepped from the 
stage of politics to private life at his home in 
Mt. Pleasant — a life destined to be marked by 
many distinguished honors and cheered by the 
love and esteem of his fellow-citizens. 



XXV 

Credit Mobilier 

But James Harlan was not permitted to retire 
without a final and searching test of the moral 
quality of his public career. The Credit Mo- 
bilier investigation early in 1873 was a source 
of much embarrassment to many of the fore- 
most statesmen of the day, including prominent 
members of the Iowa delegation in Congress. ^^^ 
While every member of that delegation in any 
way involved in the scandal was freed from 
implication of guilt, the fact remains that they 
were temporarily put upon their defense. And 
it so happened that while James Harlan never 
owned any of the questionable stock, his name 
was given publicity through the admission of 
Thomas C. Durant, Vice President of the Union 
Pacific Railroad, that in 1865 or 1866 he had 
contributed ten thousand dollars to aid in se- 
curing the return of Secretary Harlan to the 
United States Senate. 

Before both the Poland and the Wilson in- 
vestigating committee Mr. Durant testified that 
he had sent two checks of five thousand dollars 

275 



276 JAMES HARLAN 

to Harlan with the intention that they should be 
used for electioneering purposes. He stated, 
however, that this money had come entirely 
from his own pocket, that it had nothing what- 
ever to do with the Union Pacific Railroad, and 
that he had never received reimbursement from 
the company. No amount of cross-questioning 
succeeded in shaking this statement or its cor- 
roboration by Henry C. Crane, who w^as Dur- 
ant's confidential secretary and wrote the 
checks in question. ^^^ 

''Mr. Harlan had been an old personal 
friend ' ', said Durant when asked to explain the 
motives w^hich induced him to contribute the 
money. "My personal intercourse with him 
had continued fifteen or twenty years. He lived 
on a rival line of railroad through Iowa to one 
in which I had long been interested, to be sure, 
but he understood the wants of the State, and, 
besides, he had been in Washington long enough 
to know how to care for the interests of the 
State here."^°^ Later when pinned more close- 
ly on this subject Mr. Durant declared that he 
had large financial interests in Iowa which 
caused him to take a deep interest in the polit- 
ical situation in the State. But again he in- 
sisted that in his motives there was nothing of 
corruption. "I cannot answer", he said, "any 
plainer than I have done. I desired to see him 
elected to the United States Senate. I sent it 



CREDIT MOBILIER 277 

out of friendship to him. That was a larger 
motive than an}i;hing else."'^^ 

The facts thus brought out by the Poland and 
Wilson investigating committees were then con- 
sidered by a special committee of the Senate, 
headed by Lot M. Morrill, appointed to weigh 
the evidence against members of the Senate. 
On February 13, 1873, Senator Harlan was sum- 
moned before this committee and subjected to 
a thorough and searching examination. He ad- 
mitted that the money had been received, and 
that it had been used during the State campaign 
of 1865 in the payment of traveling expenses, 
printing bills, hotel bills, and the like. But he 
denied emphatically that the money had any- 
thing to do with the Union Pacific Railroad. It 
had been offered and accepted as between 
friends. In fact, he produced evidence to prove 
that when a story reached him to the effect that 
the money had really come from the railroad 
company, he had demanded to know the facts 
and had expressed his desire to refund the 
money if it came from Mr. Durant in his ca- 
pacity of Vice President of the company.^^^ 

After weighing all the evidence the commit- 
tee, which, it should be remarked, was made up 
of two Democrats and three Republicans, one of 
whom was said to be personally hostile to 
Harlan, embodied the following statement con- 
cerning James Harlan in their final report : 



278 JAMES HARLAN 

The evidence relating to Senator Harlan shows a 
transaction in 1865, while he was Secretary of the 
Interior Department. The transaction was not in its 
nature continuous, and it does not appear to have 
influenced his action as a Senator since his election 
[or that it was intended] ; and, however strongly the 
committee would deprecate the use of money for pur- 
poses for which in this case it was contributed and 
used, and with whatever judgment they would visit any 
and all attempts by the free use of money to control 
the popular expression, they do not perceive that the 
conduct of Senator Harlan is affected by the testi- 
mony. The committee cannot, however, refrain to re- 
mark upon the fact that Mr. Durant, then the 
vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company 
— a corporate creation of Congress, which would 
probably be again the subject of legislation — con- 
tributed $10,000 with the avowed purpose of its being 
used in securing the election of Mr. Harlan to the 
Senate of the United States, he being at the time of 
its receipt the Secretary of the Interior. 

This discloses an evil upon which the committee 
cannot too severely animadvert. The use of large 
sums of money to influence either popular or legis- 
lative elections strikes directly at the fundamental 
principle of a republican government. It excludes 
merit from public place and undermines the public 
and private virtue upon which alone republican in- 
stitutions can stand. It cannot be concealed that it is 
one of the threatening dangers to the permanence of 
our Government, and one which calls for that popular 
rebuke which can come only, and should come speedily. 



CREDIT MOBILIER 279 

from the united voice of the virtuous citizens of the 
Republic, uttered at every stage of governmental 
action, from the lowest to the highest. 

While this receipt and use of money is open to this 
censure, the evidence adduced to prove that Senator 
Harlan's action as a Senator was influenced by the 
gift thus made to him failed to establish any such 
result. 35 6 

This verdict, exonerating James Harlan from 
any connection with the Credit Mobilier scan- 
dal, has quite generally been accepted as satis- 
factory. The practice of using large sums of 
money for election purposes is, of course, to be 
deplored and condemned, but it was a practice 
common at the time, and has only been partially 
eliminated by restrictive legislation in our own 
day. It may be, also, that Thomas C. Durant 
was influenced by motives other than his 
personal friendship for Senator Harlan. But, 
as the committee stated, there is nothing 
to support the belief that Harlan's later course 
as Senator was affected by Durant 's contribu- 
tion. Indeed, his great service in promoting the 
Union Pacific Railroad came long before the 
Credit Mobilier investigation was ever dreamed 
of, and during his later years he evinced a 
tendency to oppose any measure that granted 
monopolistic powers to the Union Pacific. Fi- 
nally, it should be remembered that Harlan left 
the campaign of 1865-1866 in the hands of his 



280 JAMES HARLAN 

friends, while lie remained most of the time at 
his post in Washington, and thus he did not 
personally direct the disposal of the campaign 
funds, whatever the use which was made of 
them. The investigation failed to reveal a 
single instance of corrupt use of money, unless 
the defraying of traveling expenses, hotel bills, 
and the like, by such means was corrupt.^^^ 

The appearance of Harlan's name in connec- 
tion with the Credit Mobilier investigation 
naturally caused a stir in Iowa, and there were 
many who had opposed him in the late sena- 
torial contest who were ready to take up and 
magnify the transaction involved. 

"The reply of Senator Harlan to the accusing 
evidence of his having been given by the Union 
Pacific Railroad Ring, $10,000 to help purchase 
his re-election to the Senate in 1866, has been 
made", wrote the editor of the Iowa State Reg- 
ister. ''It appeared as an editorial in his own 
paper, the Washington Chronicle, on Thursday 
morning. Contrary to common expectation, 
and as common hope, he does not deny the dam- 
aging charge, but confesses to its truth, — and, 
then for justification, elevates himself upon his 
personal dignity, and asserts that it is a matter 
which does not concern the public in the 
least. "^^^ With this beginning, the editor pro- 
ceeded to quote extracts from eastern news- 
papers supposed to be favorable to Harlan. 



CREDIT MOBILIER 281 

And for several issues he continued to denounce 
the Senator in strong terms for not making an 
explanation which he deemed adequate. 

Other editors, however, from the very first 
refused to believe Senator Harlan guilty of mis- 
deeds, and vigorously defended him against 
such assaults as those made by the Des Moines 
journal. The Burlington Hawh-Eye, especially, 
devoted many columns to the defense, declaring 
that the money had been contributed merely as 
an act of friendship and that if any wrong had 
been premeditated the transaction would have 
been kept under cover and would not have been 
carried out by means of personal checks which 
made discovery a simple matter. The editor did 
not pretend to know how the funds had been 
expended, but he asserted that under existing 
conditions a large sum of money was required 
to conduct a campaign for the senatorship, and 
expressed his opinion that Senator Allison had 
expended many times the amount of his salary 
to secure his election.^^^ 

"In accepting a gift from an old friend," was 
the editor's comment when the report of the 
Senate committee became known, "Mr. Harlan 
only followed the example of many of our lead- 
ing public men from the days of the Revolution 
to the present. In spending a considerable sum 
of money in defraying the expenses of an elec- 
tion in which he was himself a candidate, Mr. 



282 JAMES HARLAN 

Harlan only did what is annually done by 
ninety-nine hundredths of all candidates for 
high offices of all political parties. There being 
not one shred of evidence that any of this money 
was corruptly used, our readers will see that the 
Senate Committee in exonerating Mr. Harlan 
have only done what they were compelled to do 
by the circumstances of the case."^^*' 



XXVI 

The Honoks of Retired Life 

With feelings of mingled relief and regret the 
Harlan family closed their Washington resi- 
dence, bade farewell to their many friends at 
the national capital, and turned their faces to- 
ward the old home at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa — a 
home endeared to them by many pleasant asso- 
ciations. To their old-time friends and neigh- 
bors, and to the faculty and students of the 
university which James Harlan had really 
founded, the opening of the Harlan home was a 
welcome event. After the first disappointment 
following defeat there was much of comfort and 
consolation in the renewal of simple home life, 
surrounded by the friends of former days and a 
younger generation of friends no less loyal than 
their fathers and mothers, and the opportuni- 
ties which came to him for active participation 
in the social, educational, and religious life of 
the community and State. 

But he was not permitted to remain in un- 
broken enjoyment of home life. Still in the full 
possession of his physical and mental powers, 

283 



284 JAMES HARLAN 

his active support was solicited — rarely in 
vain — for many a worthy cause. His forceful 
oratory was in requisition at political conven- 
tions, and at patriotic, religious, and educational 
gatherings; and it was not long until James 
Harlan, the citizen, was given full and generous 
recognition as a man peculiarly entitled to 
render high service to the community and the 
State. From many unexpected sources came 
urgent calls for his presence and influence, 
and, in response to as many invitations as he 
could reasonably find time to fill, he cheerfully 
sent his acceptance. Thus, in quiet but useful 
retirement, passed the first few years of James 
Harlan's life as a private citizen at Mt. 
Pleasant. 

In 1875, however, Mr. Harlan was plunged 
once more, and for the last time, into the mael- 
strom of a political contest in which he was a 
candidate. In spite of the reappearance of the 
libelous charges used with telling effect in 1871- 
1872, and notwithstanding the embarrassments 
following the Credit Mobilier investigation, the 
friends of the ex-Senator, under the leadership 
of Frank Hatton, editor of the Burlington 
Hawk-Eye, organized a remarkably vigorous 
movement to return Mr. Harlan to the Senate 
in 1876, to succeed Senator George G. Wright, 
who had declined a renomination.-"'^ Although 
the candidates for the senatorship at this time 



J 



THE HONORS OF RETIRED LIFE 285 

included such popular men as Samuel J. Kirk- 
wood, William W. Belknap, Hiram Price, and 
George W. McCrary, the opening of the brief 
legislative campaign in January, 1876, revealed 
the fact that the Harlan candidacy was for- 
midable, every day giving it added strength and 
its supporters increased confidence. 

The change in the attitude of many people 
toward Harlan since the bitter Harlan- Allison 
contest is revealed in a statement in the loiva 
State Register, which had been so outspoken in 
its opposition during the previous campaign 
and at the time of the Credit Mobilier scandal. 
On January 8th it informed its readers that the 
editor had been asked to publish ''a severe per- 
sonal arraignment of Mr. Harlan", but had 
declined. One reason for his refusal was that 
''some of the charges they deal with have been 
explained or disproved, as in the Cherokee Land 
Case, the Supreme Court of the United States 
having since ratified Mr. Harlan 's action in that 
matter. "3^- 

The day of the Republican caucus, January 
12, 1876, saw no diminution in the confidence of 
the supporters of James Harlan, but the candi- 
date himself was strangely silent and dejected. 
The caucus met in the evening at the appointed 
time, and before a vote could be taken John S. 
Woolson arose and, after commenting upon the 
great service which Harlan had rendered to the 



286 JAMES HARLAN 

Republican party, the State, and the Nation, 
presented the following communication from 
the candidate : 

For reasons which I hope to make satisfactory to 
my friends, I request that my name may not be sub- 
mitted to the Republican caucus this evening as a 
candidate for the nomination for the United States 
Senate. Be good enough to communicate my wishes 
in this respect to my other friends among the members 
of the General Assembly.^^^ 

''Mr. Harlan we considered," commented a 
Des Moines editor, "as the public generally 
considered Mm, from the first, the second man 
in strength in the fight. We think, too, that his 
withdrawal insured the election of Kirkwood. 
It was considered a general sign that the field 
was abandoned to the Governor, and so several 
of Harlan's supporters went straight to the 
winning camp. . . . Such a course left him 
without the weight of direct defeat to bear, gave 
the other candidate a clear field, and took him 
out of the contest in a better shape than any- 
thing else besides a nomination could have 
taken him."^*^^ 

Whether or not Mr. Harlan would have re- 
ceived the nomination, had his name not been 
withdrawn, "is a question on which there was 
difference of opinion at the time, and one to 
which no satisfactory answer can be given. It 
is not believed that he would have permitted his 



THE HONORS OF RETIRED LIFE 287 

name to be used until such a late hour if his 
withdrawal had been influenced to any consider- 
able extent by fear of defeat. In fact, the 
immediate and pathetic cause of his withdrawal 
was made known soon after the adjournment of 
the caucus and was respected as valid by both 
friends and opponents. 

On Wednesday afternoon, preceding the cau- 
cus, Mr. Harlan received a telegram from San 
Francisco announcing that his only son, Wil- 
liam, while on his way to southern California 
for his health, had become dangerously ill. 
While the final work of alignment for the caucus 
was in progress, the distracted father was 
anxiously waiting — not for word from his 
supporters, but for news from his son, dying 
among strangers, thousands of miles from 
home. A hemorrhage of the lungs had suddenly 
placed the young man's life in serious jeopardy. 
At three o'clock on the following morning Mr. 
Harlan took a fast train for San Francisco, and 
at Council Bluffs he was joined by Mrs. Harlan 
who had hastened on from Mt. Pleasant.=^«'* 
'^n his lonely trip .... to meet his son, 
the hearts of thousands of friends and all true 
lowans will follow him," was the sympathetic 
comment of the loiva State Register, '^ wishing 
that oblivion may banish any word or act which 
may have given pain to a public servant whose 
distinguished labors as an educator at home and 



288 JAMES HARLAN 

more conspicuous services in the Senate and 
Cabinet at Washington give him a first position 
among American gentlemen and statesmen. "^'^^ 

The death of William Aaron Harlan occurred 
in San Francisco on the 20th of January, 1876, 
in the twenty-fourth year of his age.^^^ 

A period of five years now ensued before the 
tranquillity of James Harlan's life was dis- 
turbed by the possibility of candidacy for office. 
Early in August, 1881, he was nominated for 
State Senator by the Republicans of Henry 
County. The action of the nominating conven- 
tion was a surprise to him, and the honor was 
the more keenly appreciated because not a few 
of the delegates who conferred upon him this 
mark of esteem and confidence had ten years 
before been arrayed against him in his can- 
didacy for the retention of his seat in the 
Senate. 

The preliminary campaign for the nomina- 
tion had developed two strong candidates, John 
S. Woolson and Joshua G. Newbold, and feeling 
ran high between the adherents of the two men. 
It soon became evident that the nomination of 
either one would anger the friends of the other 
and endanger the ticket. Consequently the re- 
sult of several informal conferences was an 
agreement to withdraw both of the rival candi- 
dates and unite upon the nomination of Harlan, 
the two contestants voluntarily withdrawing in 



THE HONORS OF RETIRED LIFE 289 

favor of their mutual friend. In the convention 
the nomination was made by Mr. Woolson and 
seconded by Mr. Newbold, and was carried with- 
out opposition amid much enthusiasm.^*^* 

James Harlan at first reluctantly accepted, 
but, on mature reflection, decided to decline the 
nomination. In a published letter he frankly 
told his friends and neighbors that his first 
thought had been that he should decline because 
of private business claiming his attention, but 
he had been induced to accept by the evident 
desire of the people of Henry County that he 
should make the campaign. Upon further 
thought, however, he had concluded that there 
was no necessity compelling him to reenter 
politics. He believed the convention intended 
the nomination as "an honor in the nature of a 
benefit to be conferred" upon him, and that 
' ' the chief consideration moving the convention, 
was to compliment" him "with the highest of- 
ficial distinction within their gift. ' ' He keenly 
appreciated the compliment, but felt it his duty 
to decline.^'^'' The county committee, therefore, 
reluctantly filled the vacancy by naming in his 
stead Lot Abraham. 

The Burlington Gazette, a Democratic jour- 
nal, in commenting upon Harlan's declination, 
remarked that it was not improbable that he 
would be called to President Arthur's Cabinet. 
"Iowa will no doubt be conceded a representa- 

19 



290 JAMES HARLAN 

tive among his advisers, ' ' said the editor, ' ' and 
who so well fitted to accept the position and find 
its duties and surroundings congenial as Mr. 
Harlan r'2-» 

James Harlan was not called to President 
Arthur's cabinet, however, and the summer of 
the following year, 1882, found him actively en- 
listed in the campaign in support of the pro- 
posed amendment to the State Constitution 
prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxi- 
cating liquors, which was to be submitted to a 
vote of the people on June 27th.''' ^ He care- 
fully prepared a logical address which was 
delivered on several occasions and contributed 
materially to the success of the movement for 
constitutional prohibition. Prefacing his gen- 
eral argument by a statement of his belief that 
there was no cause for alarm even if the amend- 
ment should be rejected, since the same result 
might then be accomplished by legislation, he 
proceeded to discuss the question in true de- 
bater's fashion, taking up first the evil to be 
remedied ; second, the existing method of regu- 
lation ; and third, the proposed remedy. 

The evil complained of was "inebriety and 
drunkenness, and their necessary incidents, 
such as idleness, profligacy, disease, poverty, 
vagrancy, pauperism, vice and crime." Every- 
one admitted the gigantic proportions of the 
evil. It was therefore the duty of the State to 



THE HONORS OF RETIRED LIFE 291 

protect the individual from drunkenness on the 
same principle that the imbecile, the insane, and 
other unfortunate people were cared for, for the 
drunkard was more to be pitied than to be pun- 
ished. "The people of the State," he said, 
''under their own self-government, cannot es- 
cape the responsibility of protecting these 
members of civil society, and doing whatever 
may be properly done to prevent a continuance 
of the evil. ' ' 

The evil, moreover, was not limited merely to 
the individual victim, but fell even more heavily 
on their families and finally upon society itself. 
Not only were the hundreds and thousands of 
people destroyed by the drink evil a direct loss 
to society, but the results of drunkenness im- 
posed an immense financial burden from which 
it was right that the State should seek release, 
if release could be secured "without the sacri- 
fice of paramount interests." The inalienable 
right to ' ' life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness" was the corner stone of our government, 
but in practice these rights had certain "well 
defined and distinctly understood limits. ' ' Life 
and liberty might both be taken as punishment 
for crimes, and property was subject to seizure 
by the government for a great variety of causes. 
And in the same way there were limitations 
upon the pursuit of happiness. "Each citizen 
may Mdthout restraint 'pursue his own happi- 



292 JAMES HARLAN 

ness' in his own methods," Harlan maintained, 
**so far forth as this may be done without inter- 
ference with the rights of others individually or 
collectively. ' ' 

Therefore, the State might regulate the man- 
ufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, even 
though the rights and liberties of a few indi- 
viduals might be restrained thereby. In fact 
the people of the State, almost without excep- 
tion, had long recognized the need of regulation. 
There had been two leading methods of re- 
straint advocated: the license system and pro- 
hibition. The former had prevailed for a time, 
but had been superseded by the latter which was 
in force at that time, although it was objected 
to on the grounds that it was not and could not 
be enforced. ''But to assert that the existing 
prohibitory law is not and cannot be enforced," 
Harlan declared, *'is begging the question. 
That it is but imperfectly enforced may be 
granted. That it is almost a dead letter in some 
places in the State, is freely admitted." But 
the same objection might be urged against any 
number of other laws. The chief reason, in his 
opinion, for the non-enforcement of the pro- 
hibitory law was the exemption of wine and 
beer, the very defect which the prohibitionists 
were now endeavoring to remedy. If absolute 
prohibition could not be enforced, why were the 
liquor dealers so much alarmed and why were 



THE HONORS OF RETIRED LIFE 293 

thej^ working so hard against the amend- 
ment f^'^ 

With this query Mr. Harlan closed the ad- 
dress, which throughout was free from fanat- 
icism or narrowness. Its appeal was to reason 
rather than to prejudice and consequently- 
brought conviction to many of its hearers. The 
amendment was adopted by a decisive vote on 
June 27th, only to be declared invalid by the 
Supreme Court a few months later. 

The close of this campaign was soon followed 
by the bestowal of a signal honor on James 
Harlan. Although President Arthur did not 
call him to a seat in his Cabinet he appointed 
him as one of the three judges of the second 
Court of Alabama Claims, the other two being 
H. G. Wells and Anson French. Upon the 
death of the former soon after the organization 
of the court, Mr. Harlan succeeded him as Chief 
Justice. ^"^ 

The first Court of Alabama Claims was estab- 
lished in the early seventies; the second was 
created in 1882 and continued until 1886, when, 
having completed the duties for which it was 
appointed, it was formally closed. These courts 
heard the individual claims against the fund of 
$15,500,000 awarded to the United States 
against Great Britain by the Geneva Tribunal, 
on the ground that losses aggregating that 
amount had been suffered by the commerce of 



294 JAMES HARLAN 

the United States through the depredations of 
Confederate cruisers which the English govern- 
ment had allowed to be constructed in British 
shipyards. 

The first Court heard the claims for direct 
losses and made awards amounting to some- 
thing over nine million dollars. The balance 
was invested in United States bonds, and during 
the following years was considerably augment- 
ed by the interest which accrued. Then in 1882 
Congress passed an act creating a second Court, 
with authority to hear any belated claims for 
direct damages, as well as claims which had 
arisen indirectly — as, for instance, those which 
resulted from the payment of premiums to in- 
sure marine property against war risks. ^^^ 
The awards made by the second Court under 
this act amounted to a sum of money largely in 
excess of the unused balance, and many of the 
claimants received but fifty-four per cent of the 
amount of their claims. ^^^ 

*'The association with Senator Harlan upon 
this Court was a continual delight to me", 
writes Andrew S. Draper, who was appointed 
to fill the vacancy in the Court caused by the 
death of Mr. Wells and the promotion of Mr. 
Harlan to the presiding judgeship. "He was a 
good lawyer; indeed, it would hardly be too 
much to say that he was a great lawyer. Of 
course, he had never been much in the mere 



THE HONORS OF RETIRED LIFE 295 

routine of a legal practice, but lie knew the 
sources, and the history, and the philosophy of 
the law; and he was by temperament a 
Judge. "3'^ 

It was during his service on the Court of 
Alabama Claims that James Harlan suffered 
his greatest bereavement. On September 4, 
1884, his wife, Ann Eliza Harlan, died at Old 
Point Comfort, Virginia. ''Her body was in- 
terred in Forest Home Cemetery, Mt. Pleasant, 
Iowa, by the side of her three departed children 
— two sons and one daughter — with military 
honors. The members of McFarland Post as- 
sembled in their hall and after the adoption of 
resolutions of regret, condolence, and gratitude 
for her eminent services in the army, followed 
her in a hodj, on foot, from her late home to 
her final resting place, where every spring, on 
Decoration Day, her grave is marked with her 
country's flag, by order of the Post, and strewn 
with flowers by the loving hands of the members 
of the loyal "Women's Relief Corps. "^"'^ 

Ann Eliza Harlan was one of that band of 
brave women who have often been referred to 
as the Florence Nightingales of the Civil War 
in America. Very early in the war she devoted 
all her time and energies and all the money 
which the family exchequer would permit to 
visiting and caring for sick and wounded sol- 
diers in the field. Her first-hand knowledge of 



296 JAMES HARLAN 

conditions, transmitted to the Government at 
Washington through her husband, had much in- 
fluence in awakening the Nation to the crying 
need for the proper care of its soldiers. Her 
services may best be summed up in the tribute 
of a contemporary: 

I claim for the State of Iowa the honor of in- 
augurating the movements which at last culminated in 
making of the nation the greatest benevolent society 
which ever existed save that whose founder was God 
himself. Mrs. Harlan, wife of the honorable James 
Harlan, then United States Senator, now Secretary of 
the Interior, was the first woman of our country 
among those moving in what we call the high circles 
of society, and which in a free country should be 
based upon worth alone, who personally visited the 
army, and ministered to the wants of our suffering 
soldiery. She visited the army at Pittsburg Landing, 
and thousands of men are alive to-day, who but for 
her ministering visits to the field of Shiloh, but for 
her energy, for her "out-ranking Halleck," might 
have been rudely buried on that bloody field. . . . 
She at first devoted her energies to caring for the 
volunteers from our own State, but afterwards gave 
her time and labors to the general cause, for the good 
of which she braved the storms of ocean, many jour- 
neys to the army, many sneers of upstart officers, but 
lived to see her efforts crowned with splendid success, 
and her name blessed in nearly every city, town, and 
hamlet in the land.^^^ 



XXVII 

The Convention Speech of 1893 

On August 16, 1893, James Harlan at the age of 
seventy-three achieved what in many respects 
was the most signal triumph of his whole polit- 
ical career. On that day, as temporary chair- 
man of the Republican State Convention, in 
session in Des Moines, he delivered a speech 
which will long be remembered as one of the 
landmarks in the history of the Republican 
party in Iowa. 

The question of prohibition which was sub- 
mitted to the voters of Iowa as a constitutional 
amendment at a non-partisan election in June, 
1882, took new form when the Supreme Court 
of the State pronounced the amendment invalid 
because of a technical defect in its passage 
through two successive General Assemblies. 
In response to the demands of an indignant ma- 
jority, the Republican party promptly placed 
itself on record in favor of giving statutory 
prohibition a full and fair trial ; and as a result 
the legislature in 1884 passed a rigid prohib- 
itory law, which was supplemented by added 

297 



298 JAMES HARLAN 

provisions in 1886. Thus the non-partisan is- 
sue of 1882 became a partisan issue to the seri- 
ous embarrassment of the Republican party, 
and with fearful loss to the prohibition cause, 
through non-enforcement, especially in the river 
towns and in the larger cities of the interior. 
In spite of the acknowledged failure of the law 
in many localities and the consequent growing 
dissatisfaction on the part of the people, the 
Republican party in its platforms continued 
to give vigorous support to statutory prohi- 
bition. The result was that in 1889 the party 
in Iowa suffered the first defeat in its history, 
and met the same fate again in 1891. ^^'^ 

Many friends of the temperance cause, pain- 
fully aware of the mistake which had been made 
in attempting to make prohibition a test of 
party fealty, took counsel together as to the 
best method of correcting the mistake. These 
counsels resulted in a determined effort to rid 
prohibition of the incubus of partisanship, and 
at the same time to relieve the Republican party 
of a local issue on which it had gone down to 
defeat. Casting about for someone who shared 
their fears for the cause of temperance and for 
the future of the party, which had attempted 
to do as a party what could only be accom- 
plished by the combined efforts of good citizens 
without regard to politics, the Republican State 
Central Committee united on James Harlan for 



CONVENTION SPEECH OF 1893 299 

temporary chairman of the State Convention 
on August 16th. Harlan's breadth of view on 
the temperance question and his years of ex- 
perience and observation made him peculiarly 
fitted to speak w^ords of wisdom to a distracted 
political party. 

"To me it is indeed a great inspiration to 
look into the patriotic faces of such an assem- 
blage of representative Iowa Republicans", 
said the temporary chairman in opening his 
speech. "There are enough of us here today 
to revolutionize, as far as needful, the politics 
of our state, and to set the pace for the greatly 
needed reform in the politics of the National 
congress and administration." But these ends 
could only be accomplished by harmony and 
persistent work. The country had often "wit- 
nessed the overthrow of distracted majorities 
by united and harmonious minorities." More- 
over, he warned the convention that as "intel- 
ligent farmers would not rely on the labor put 
forth on these beautiful Iowa fields last year, 
as being sufficient to secure abundant harvests 
this year, we must not rely for future political 
victories on the splendid record heretofore 
made by ' our grand old party ' ' '. These ' * trite 
observations ' ' he hoped were not inappropriate 
in view of the fact that the Republican party no 
longer held the triumphant position either in 
the State or the Nation which it had once held. 



300 JAMES HARLAN 

Nomination by a Republican caucus or conven- 
tion no longer meant certain election. 

The speaker then outlined the fundamental 
policies of the Republican party. "Adhesion 
to those fundamental principles", he said, "is 
Republicanism as your temporary chairman un- 
derstands it. And if I do not know what Re- 
publicanism and its legitimate fruits are, who 
does?" For this apparently egotistical query 
he proceeded to give ample justification : 

Am I not one of those who were present at the 
party's birth? Who stood by the cradle of freedom 
in which it was rocked ? Who helped to bear its shield 
when it was still small and weak and needed defenders 
against its giant foes? Who saw it develop a lusty 
body, a great heart and a magnificent brain, no longer 
needing or tolerating guardianship? Who stood by 
it when it first stretched forth its strong arms and 
grasped the scepter of National power from the tremb- 
ling hands of an effete Democracy that, having out- 
lived its patriotism, was found to be no longer fit to 
govern a free people? Who saw the young giant 
party, in the presence of an empty treasury and gen- 
eral bankruptcy, sweep away the "wild cat" money 
with which the Democracy had cursed the country, 
and substitute sound National currency? Who saw it 
when the country was stripped by the Democracy of 
adequate means of military defense, organize and 
equip the greatest armies and create invincible navies ? 
Stand off, by statesmanship, the hostile diplomacy of 
Europe, and by its military genius restrain the organ- 



CONVENTION SPEECH OF 1893 301 

ized "copperheads" and armed knights of the "Gold- 
en Circle" — spawn of the Democracy of that period 
— in the loyal states, while it crushed the Confederate 
armies in the rebel states? Who saw it knock the 
shackles from the limbs of millions of slaves, notwith- 
standing the protests of the Democratic party; both 
north and south ? Who saw it reorganize on the basis 
of freedom and equality all the recent insurrectionary 
states and restore them to their former places in this 
Union, strengthened by the admission and also a score 
of new states? Who saw it, without firing a gun, 
drive the French out of our sister republic of Mexico, 
compel Great Britain to pay for the damage done us 
by her illicit cruisers, and induce all the great nations 
to abrogate their old-time dogma, "once a subject, 
always a subject," admit the validity of our naturali- 
zation laws, and the equality of naturalized citizens 
with native-born citizens before all international tri- 
bunals? Who saw it grant homesteads to all citizens 
wishing to occupy agricultural lands, open up the rich 
gold and silver mines of our vast mountain ranges, 
connect all parts of our great country, extending from 
sea to sea, by steam railways, cover our internal waters 
with convenient means of cheap transportation, fill our 
country with free schools and agricultural colleges, 
and so foster our agricultural, mechanical, mercantile 
and manufacturing interests as to more than double 
our country's population and to quadruple our na- 
tion's wealth in a period of only thirty years? 

Did the recent defeats mean that the Repub- 
licans of Iowa and the Nation had repudiated 
the principles and records of their party? Mr. 



302 JAMES HARLAN 

Harlan believed that there was no justification 
for such a belief. In his opinion the real cause 
for the defeats of the party was the lack of 
harmony resulting from the incorporation into 
the party's platform of "specific statutes or 
proposed statutes, instead of principles, on 
which statutes should be founded". "In the 
practice of this sort of unwisdom here in Iowa," 
declared Mr. Harlan, "we may certainly find 
sufficient cause for our successive defeats in 
the gubernatorial contests of 1889 and 1891, 
whatever may be thought of the causes of our 
national defeat in 1892." The particular stat- 
ute, which the Republican party in Iowa had 
advocated to its sorrow, was, of course, the 
prohibitory law, although at no. time in his 
speech did Mr. Harlan refer to it by name. 

It was conceded by everyone that in Iowa the 
Republicans outnumbered all other political 
parties combined. And, believing, as all mem- 
bers of the convention did, in the soundness 
of Republican principles and the depend- 
ence of the welfare of the country and State 
upon the enforcement of those principles, it 
was the solemn duty of the convention to lead 
the party once more to victory. The only im- 
pediment, he said, "to our rightful triumphs 
from year to year has been of our own creation ; 
merely inharmony among ourselves arising over 
the discussion in our political campaigns of 



CONVENTION SPEECH OF 1893 303 

questions lying outside of the legitimate pur- 
view of the principles of the party to which 
we belong", questions which should be left to 
legislative decision. If the party should drop 
these unfortunate controversies it w^ould be ful- 
filling the command given in the Sermon on the 
Mount: ''And if thy right hand offend thee 
cut it off, and cast it from thee ; for it is profit- 
able for thee that one of thy members should 
perish, and not that thy whole body should be 
cast into hell." 

Applying this injunction to the present situ- 
ation, the speaker concluded that the calamity 
to be avoided was "being cast a third time in 
three consecutive gubernatorial contests, under 
the feet of the Democratic party. Surely that 
would be hell enough for any patriotic Repub- 
lican weak enough and blind enough to assist 
in bringing on such humiliation. ' ' He had pro- 
found respect for men who would do right "if 
the heavens fall ' ', but he did not think it neces- 
sary that any member of the convention should 
"strive to be better and wiser than the Son of 
God in the practical affairs of this life." The 
speech closed with an eloquent appeal for har- 
mony: 

Gentlemen of the convention: Are we not wise 
enough to cast out from among us all apples of dis- 
cord, reestablish harmony and concord in our own 
ranks, stop fighting each other, and once more turn 



304 JAMES HARLAN 

all our guns on the common enemy? Do this and it 
requires no gift of prophecy to foretell that when the 
smoke of the pending battle shall have lifted, victory 
will be seen as of yore, perching on our Republican 
standards. The official control of Iowa will have 
passed fully into the hands of the majority of her 
people, where it rightfully belongs ; and last, but not 
least, Iowa's clear, strong, Republican voice will con- 
tinue to ring out over the Nation from the chamber 
of the senate of the United States, as it has been heard 
ringing continuously during the last thirty-eight 
years.^^*^ 

To this day, men who sat under the influence 
of James Harlan's oratory on this occasion 
unite in declaring that rarely, if ever, have they 
seen and felt a convention so moved by human 
utterance. *' After he had outlined the prin- 
ciples of Republicanism," says the Iowa State 
Register, ''the speaker set the convention wild 
by saying : ' These are the principles of Repub- 
licanism as your temporary chairman under- 
stands them, and if I don't know what Repub- 
licanism is, who does?' The convention burst 
forth into a tremendous storm of applause and 
interfered for several minutes with the speech. 
It was the tribute of the present generation to 
a man who is a part of the history of the party 
and the Nation." And the entire speech "was 
received with such strong approval as to indi- 
cate the certainty of perfect harmony. "^^^ 



J 



CONVENTION SPEECH OF 1893 305 

It is generally conceded that this speech had 
the result of re-uniting the Republican party in 
Iowa by the abandonment of its ill-fated sup- 
port of a State-wide prohibitory law. In the 
platform adopted by this convention the party 
declared : 

That prohibition is no test of Republicanism. The 
General Assembly has given to the State a prohibitory 
law as strong as any that has ever been enacted by any 
country. Like any other criminal statute, its reten- 
tion, modification or repeal must be determined by the 
General Assembly, elected by and in sympathy with 
the people, and to it is relegated the subject, to take 
such action as they may deem just and best in the 
matter, maintaining the present law in those portions 
of the State where it is now or can be made efficient, 
and giving to other localities such methods of con- 
trolling and regulating the liquor traffic as will best 
serve the cause of temperance and morality .^^'^ 

James Harlan's plea for harmony was not in 
vain, and the prophecy uttered in his closing 
words was amply fulfilled. Freed from the 
weight of State-wide prohibition the Repub- 
lican party went into the campaign with old- 
time vigor and elected its entire State ticket by 
handsome pluralities. 



20 



XXVIII 

Last Years 

The years of James Harlan's life were now 
drawing rapidly to a close. But age did not 
bring any appreciable diminution in mental ca- 
pacity or any lessening of his interest in public 
affairs. Since 1888, Mr. Harlan had been a 
member of a commission appointed to consider 
plans and secure contracts for the erection of a 
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on the capitol 
grounds at Des Moines, and to superintend the 
work of construction.^^^ And on September 6, 
1894, at the laying of the corner stone of the 
monument he represented the commission as 
orator of the day. 

''Standing here on the summit of these Des 
Moines hills," he began, "in the shadow of 
Iowa's state capitol, to initiate, as spokesman 
for the commission, the erection of a monument 
to commemorate in art, the patriotic deeds of 
our heroes, human language is too feeble to fitly 
express my emotions. Fifty and one years ago 
I first saw that great river styled ' an arm of the 
sea ' which flows along our eastern border. ' ' He 

306 



LAST YEARS 307 

then pictured in a few graphic words the growth 
and development of the State of Iowa in those 
fifty years, and traced the history of the move- 
ment which resulted in the erection of the mon- 
ument for which the corner stone was to be laid. 
After describing the monument as it would 
stand when completed, and recounting briefly 
the services of the various Iowa regiments, he 
declared that neither this monument nor all the 
monuments of the world could ''adequately ex- 
press Iowa's appreciation of the patriotic deeds 
of her immortal heroes". And he hoped, in 
conclusion, that this monument would be ' ' only 
the pioneer of still greater works of art here- 
after to arise in honor of our fellow citizens 
who offered their lives for their government, 
for their country, for civil liberty and for the 
human race, until these Des Moines hills shall 
be radiant with their glory ".^^-^ 

As the erection of the monument progressed 
the press of the State was filled with complaints, 
insinuations, and charges, the trend of which 
was that personal and regimental favorites — 
chiefly residents of southeastern Iowa — had 
been chosen for representation among the va- 
rious figures on the monument, and that whole 
sections of the State and entire brigades had 
been ignored. In response to these complaints 
Mr. Harlan wrote a magazine article which did 
much to bring the discussion to a close.^*^ 



308 JAMES HARLAN 

A sequel to the great convention speech of 
1893 was a strong popular movement in 1895 to 
make James Harlan Governor of Iowa. The 
movement seems to have originated with the 
Burlington Hawk-Eye, a paper which from the 
very beginning of Harlan's public career had 
been one of his most ardent champions. The 
suggestion thus made was received with much 
favor in various sections of the State, and by 
the first of July there were confident predic- 
tions that the ex-Senator would receive the 
Republican nomination, in spite of the acknowl- 
edged strength of General Francis M. Drake.^^® 
The chief argument used against Harlan was 
his age, but his supporters insisted that in this 
case it was not a valid objection, since he was 
still possessed of vigorous physical and mental 
strength, and in point of experience out-dis- 
tanced any other man in the State of Iowa. 

The Republican State Convention was held at 
Des Moines on July 10, 1895. Six ballots were 
required to nominate a candidate for Governor, 
and on each ballot James Harlan stood second 
to Francis M. Drake. His greatest strength 
appeared on the fourth ballot, when he received 
three hundred and eighty-four votes. On the 
sixth ballot, however, there was a stampede to 
Drake who was nominated by an overwhelming 
vote.^®^ 

''In failing to accept Senator Harlan as its 



LAST YEARS 309 

standard bearer", declared the Iowa State 
Register, "the Republican party of Iowa did 
not in any way reflect upon the man or his 
career. The man stands out as one among the 
great men connected with the history of the 
state, and his career is complete, as to honors, 
without the addition of the governorship. . . . 
The speech he made before the convention two 
years ago was as distinguished a service to the 
party and the state as two ordinary years in 
the governor's chair. Senator Harlan is not in 
need of mock condolences. He has been in bat- 
tle and been defeated before. He knows the 
course of politics. ... In appearing as a 
candidate for the nomination he honored the 
party and added new luster to the great office 
of governor of lowa."^^^ 

That the words of the Des Moines editor 
were a faithful expression of the attitude of 
the people of Iowa toward the veteran states- 
man is evidenced by the fact that two years 
later James Harlan again received strong sup- 
port for the nomination for Governor. On the 
four ballots required to nominate, Harlan had 
a substantial following, although not of suf- 
ficient strength at any time to place him among 
the leaders or to give him any real hope of 
election. The fourth ballot resulted in the 
choice of Leslie M. Shaw.^^^ 

The last public event in which Mr. Harlan 



310 JAMES HARLAN 

took a prominent part was the laying of the 
corner stone of the Historical Building at Des 
Moines on May 17, 1899, on which occasion he 
was President of the Day. The ceremonies con- 
nected with this event brought together a large 
number of pioneers and distinguished citizens 
from all parts of the State, and the assemblage 
at the northeast corner of the capitol square 
was said to be one of the largest in the history 
of Des Moines. 

On taking the chair Mr. Harlan delivered a 
brief but impressive address. ''This is not a 
trivial event ' ', he said. ' ' It will mark an epoch 
in the development of our civilization as a com- 
monwealth." He retold in vivid outline the 
story of the growth and development of the 
State and Nation, and emphasized the record 
the people of America had made for "domestic 
comfort, mental and moral culture, stern hon- 
esty and unbending probity, public and private 
honor, and unyielding courage coupled with 
ample generosity". 

''But", continued the speaker, "in the col- 
lection and preservation of emblems and me- 
morials of our own activities in the settlement 
and development of our own beloved State — 
in the erection of monuments allegorically rep- 
resenting our own achievements .... we 
lowans have less cause for congratulation." 
He called attention to the fact that in this 



LAST YEARS 311 

respect Iowa was far behind many other States, 
even in the West, and especially Wisconsin, 
where there was a splendid collection of his- 
torical materials. *'And we cannot easily for- 
get", he reminded his audience, ''that at the 
Columbian Exposition, in the city of Chicago, 
six years ago, the Iowa people failed to produce 
a single specimen of art work deemed, by the 
art commissioners, worthy of a place in the 
great art galleries, by the side of exhibits from 
our sister states, and from the old nations of 
Europe. ' ' Therefore, it was a significant prom- 
ise for the future that they were met that day 
to lay the corner stone for a ''Memorial, His- 
torical and Art Building" for the State of 
lowa."^^*^ 

During the summer following this address 
Mr. Harlan journeyed to Omaha, Nebraska, to 
pay a last visit to his life-long friend, Alvin 
Saunders, then in feeble health. Alvin Saun- 
ders was a State Senator when James Harlan 
was first elected to the Senate of the United 
States, and the voluminous correspondence 
which passed between the two men at that time 
leaves little doubt but that to Saunders, more 
than to any other one man, was Harlan indebted 
for the success of his first candidacy for the 
senatorship. Saunders, in turn, owed to Sen- 
ator Harlan his appointment by President 
Lincoln in 1861 as Governor of the Territory of 



312 JAMES HARLAN 

Nebraska, a position which later led to a seat 
in the United States Senate. Consequently this 
visit between the two men who had known each 
other so long and intimately, and who had been 
of such great service to each other, was keenly 
enjoyed by both.^*^^ 

On Saturday, September 30, 1899, Mr. Harlan 
presided over a district conference of laymen 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church which met 
at Mt. Pleasant. He had been invited to deliver 
an extended address on that occasion, but was 
compelled to decline in order that he might re- 
serve his strength for the following day, when 
the duty of inducting into office the newly 
elected President of Iowa Wesleyan University 
would devolve upon him as president of the 
Board of Trustees. During Sunday he con- 
tracted a severe cold which by night developed 
alarming symptoms. On Monday the sufferer 
experienced some relief, but Tuesday brought a 
relapse which revealed the fact that death was 
imminent. Mr. and Mrs. Eobert T. Lincoln had 
early been summoned to his bedside, and they 
arrived in time to comfort and care for the 
father during his last hours. On Wednesday 
night Mr. Harlan bade his daughter an affec- 
tionate ''good night". The following morning 
found him deprived of the power of speech. He 
died on the forenoon of Thursday, October 5, 
1899, in his eightieth year. 



LAST YEARS 313 

On learning of the death of the Iowa states- 
man, Governor Shaw promptly issued a proc- 
lamation making formal announcement of the 
passing of ''one of the really great men of the 
nation", who, in his fourscore years of useful- 
ness "had done the nation high service and 
reflected luster on the state of his adoption." 
Special reference was made to the fact that 
James Harlan 's chief service had been rendered 
''during the most critical period in the history 
of the republic, when great armies were striving 
to subvert it, and when not only valor and ef- 
ficiency in the field, but the highest character of 
statesmanship in council, was needed. It was 
here that the greatness of the man was made 
apparent, and where he rendered service of 
momentous value to the nation." The Gov- 
ernor therefore directed that the flags on all 
public buildings be placed at half-mast until 
after the funeral, and suggested "that the 
school-houses throughout the state display a 
similar token of mourning in honor of the first 

official head of the educational forces of 
Iowa."2''2 

The funeral services were held in Mt. Pleas- 
ant on Monday, October 9th, in the presence of 
the largest funeral assemblage ever gathered 
in that community. Business was suspended, 
the public schools, the post-office, and the county 
offices were closed, and the main street of the 



314 JAMES HARLAN 

city was draped in mourning. The body lay in 
state for several hours, guarded by college stu- 
dents, and nearly every man, woman, and child 
in Mt. Pleasant paid tribute to the honored 
dead. It was eminently fitting that the services 
should take place in the chapel of the Iowa 
Wesleyan University, which may be justly re- 
garded as a monument to James Harlan's un- 
wearying devotion to the cause of education. 

The funeral services were conducted by Dr. 
C. L. Stafford, the retiring President of the 
University, and Dr. F. D. Blakeslee, his suc- 
cessor.^''^ 

In the procession to the cemetery the mem- 
bers of the local Grand Army Post, of which 
James Harlan was an honorary member, were 
accorded first place. Followed by the surviving 
members of his family, his old-time friends and 
fellow-townsmen, educators, members of the 
bar, friends who had served with him in public 
life, and the student body whom he had long 
regarded with a fatherly affection, the remains 
of the departed statesman were committed to 
the grave, beside those of the members of his 
family who had gone before. 

In May, 1907, the old homestead of Senator 
and Mrs. Harlan passed by gift from the pos- 
session of Mrs. Robert T. Lincoln to the Iowa 
Wesleyan University, the institution for which 
James Harlan had sacrificed his ambition as a 



LAST YEARS 315 

lawyer and to which he had always given freely 
of his sympathy and of his means. The historic 
home of the University's first President, in 
which many of America's statesmen, educators, 
and preachers in their time found hospitable 
welcome, is therefore fittingly used at the pres- 
ent time as the home of the President of the 
University. 

In the same year, 1907, the State of Iowa 
paid high tribute to the memory of James 
Harlan. Congress had passed a law author- 
izing each State to provide statues of two of 
its illustrious sons not then living, and to have 
them placed in the National Statuary Hall in 
the capitol building at Washington, D. C. In 
accordance with this authorization, the Thirty- 
second General Assembly of Iowa passed an act 
declaring that James Harlan was "worthy of 
being selected as one of the citizens of Iowa 
whose statue shall be placed in the said national 
statuary hall", empowering the Executive 
Council to provide a suitable statue, and appro- 
priating the sum of five thousand dollars for 
that purpose. ^^^ The statue thus provided for 
was executed, first in clay and then in bronze, 
by Miss Nellie V. Walker of Chicago, and now 
occupies its place along with the statues of 
those who in their time reflected high honor 
upon their respective Commonwealths. 

On the highest ground in the cemetery at Mt. 



316 JAMES HARLAN 

Pleasant rises a plain granite shaft, and near 
it is a group of granite headstones upon which 
are carved the initials of the members of the 
Harlan family whose remains lie buried there. 
Visitors are directed thither that they may look 
upon the last resting place of the simple, great 
man who years ago went in and out among his 
fellow-townsmen, at one with them in all the 
interests which tend to ennoble and elevate com- 
munity life. 



XXIX 

Speeches and Addresses 

Little remains for the biographer of James 
Harlan but to outline a few significant public 
utterances during the Senator's years of retire- 
ment, in order to discover if possible the trend 
of his thought during what may be called the 
reflective period of his life. These speeches and 
addresses, some of which have been noted in 
other connections, cover a wide field of topics 
and reveal the breadth of the ex-Senator's in- 
terests and sympathies. 

Coming to Iowa just before the transition 
from Territorial to State government, Mr. 
Harlan was naturally in demand as a speaker 
at ''Old Settlers' Meetings". A typical ad- 
dress of this kind, and apparently the first one, 
was delivered in the summer of 1885 at a gath- 
ering of old settlers of Henry County. ' ' I have 
doubted that I have a right to be considered 
either a 'pioneer' or 'an old settler' ", he 
facetiously remarked. "It has been only about 
forty-four years since I first saw Iowa; and 
only a little more than thirty-nine years since 

317 



318 JAMES HARLAN 

I became a continuous resident. And this is 
the first time I have been invited to meet with 
the 'old settlers'. The omission to extend me 
such invitation heretofore may, however, have 
been on account of my youthful appearance. 
. . . But possibly I may now for the first 
time have attained the necessary antiquity". 

His thoughts went back to the time in 1841 
when he first saw the Mississippi and crossed it 
to visit the then small village of Burlington. 
"It does not seem to me so very long ago", he 
said. "But the towns were not large then. 
And there were not many of them. The settle- 
ments were small and thin and widely scattered. 
The whole number of the white population in 
the territory according to the census taken the 
year previous, was only about forty-three thou- 
sand. The red deer, elk and buffalo were far 
more numerous, — with now and then a panther 
or black bear, — and multitudes of wolves and 
millions of prairie chickens. The Indians 
seemed to be about as numerous as the white 
people." 

The settlers with whom he had talked in 1841 
firmly believed that Iowa would never become a 
State. They thought that "it would in time be 
settled in a strip of land along the west side of 
the Mississippi River," and a short distance up 
the larger tributaries. "All westward was be- 
lieved to be a treeless plain .... And all 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 319 

the north-west part of the territory was sup- 
posed to be covered by lakes, ponds, and track- 
less swamps ; a fit abode only for otter, beaver, 
musk-rats, and such amphibia, — and ducks and 
geese and other w^ater fowl. ' ' And yet he, and 
nearly everyone of his hearers, had seen and 
were a part of the marvelous growth and de- 
velopment which had taken place since these 
pessimistic prophecies had been made. Of this 
growth and development he drew the following 
picture : 

Of course I have seen, as each of you has seen, the 
settlements gradually advancing from year to year, 
up the valleys of the streams, and then widening out 
from the margin of the timber on either side over the 
up-lands until improved farms have met each other on 
"the divides" all over the State. We have seen the 
red deer and elk and buffalo disappear from their 
"ranges" at the approach of domestic cattle; the 
larger forests in the vicinity of streams melting away 
to give room for cultivated fields; grain fields super- 
seding the native grasses on our prairies; pioneers' 
cabins first springing up in all directions from river 
to river east and west, and from Missouri to Minne- 
sota, north and south, and then gradually giving place 
to hundreds of thousands of more commodious resi- 
dences, interspersed with school-houses and churches, 
which are now dotting our valleys and hills and plains, 
— surrounded by orchards of luscious fruits, and 
blooming gardens, — embowered in the shade of culti- 
vated groves; until Iowa has become in population 



320 JAMES HARLAN 

probably the eighth State in the Union, — and in re- 
spect to wealth, intelligence, morality and domestic 
comforts hardly second to any other State. 

He then presented several series of statistics 
illustrating the growth of the population of the 
State and the increase in material wealth. And 
in conclusion he declared that "as one by one 
we pass away to the spirit world, we transfer, 
with satisfaction, this great and glorious herit- 
age to a younger generation, claiming only to 
have done our work fairly well, and confidently 
expecting them and their posterity to continue 
to push the car of progress forward. "^^^ 

A life which spanned the rise of a new Com- 
monwealth in the West and years of experience 
in the high counsels of the Nation also fitted 
James Harlan in an eminent degree for deliver- 
ing addresses on patriotic occasions. An ad- 
dress of this character which may be taken as 
the expression of Mr. Harlan's mature reflec- 
tion upon the history and the future of his 
country was delivered at Fairfield on the 
Fourth of July, 1896. After a brief review of 
the phenomenal growth of the Nation he turned 
to an examination of the causes of this growth : 

We may therefore properly pause here for a mo- 
ment and ask what are these gigantic forces which 
have in this instance produced results never before 
equalled during the history of the human race. 

It may be more easy to discover what they are not 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 321 

than what they are. Hence we may say without a 
shadow of doubt that they have not been derived ex- 
clusively from our great expanse of territory; for 
other nations, ancient and modern, have each owned 
more land. They have not come exclusively from the 
fertility of the soil in the United States, the sal- 
ubrity of the climate, the value of our mines and 
forests, from our navigable rivers, great lakes and sea 
coasts; for other countries are our equals in all these 
respects. Nor could they have come from the primeval 
character of our country at the date of our national 
birth, lying out fallow since the date of its creation 
and collecting and accumulating fertility for a gi- 
gantic manifestation of fruitfulness during the closing 
years of this century; for nearly all of North and 
South America, Australia and nearly all of Africa, 
and a large part of Asia were in the same condition 
when our nationality began. 

Therefore the explanation of national suc- 
cess could not be found to any great extent in 
material conditions. "Were I required to men- 
tion, in a single sentence, the potential force," 
declared the speaker, "I would say that it was 
the simple recognition by the patriots of 1776 
of God as the only rightful sovereign ruler of 
nations, and the universal brotherhood of the 
human race!" Equality in natural rights, 
equality before the law, the right of the people 
to choose their own rulers and make their own 
laws, and government by the will of the major- 
ity were the fundamental principles which were 

21 



322 JAMES HARLAN 

found expressed and in operation in the United 
States for the first time in the history of na- 
tions. Consequently it might be reasonably 
said that the prosperity and power of the 
United States was chiefly due to the dominance 
of these principles. 

''And here", he said, "the inquiry will nat- 
urally arise, can this enormous increase in the 
elements of national greatness continue? And 
if not, can our free institutions be maintained? 
Or must a nation necessarily, like an individual 
human being, have its infancy, its youth, its 
stalwart manhood, its old age, decline and 
death?" A few simple calculations based on 
the experience of other nations would serve to 
show that even the State of Iowa would, by 
proper methods of agriculture, be able to sup- 
port a population of fifteen millions of people, 
and hence the population of the whole country 
might increase almost indefinitely without en- 
dangering the prosperity of the Nation through 
lack of means of support for its people. The 
subject of immigration naturally suggested it- 
self at this point and called forth the following 
remarks from the speaker : 

Nor do I apprehend disaster on account of emigra- 
tion from foreign lands to this country. Emigrants 
and their descendants founded this republic ; and have 
been the defenders of its free institutions throughout 
its history. Of course the emigration to these shores 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 323 

of felons, vagrants and paupers should be sternly pro- 
hibited, on the grounds of both justice and self de- 
fense. Every nation should be required to restrain 
its own criminals and to provide for its own depend- 
ent people. In 1890, according to the official reports, 
among a population of about sixty-two millions there 
were only a little more than nine millions of foreign 
birth, in the United States. The major part of these 
are the equals in intelligence, industry, frugality and 
morality, to the average of our native population. 
Hence I feel no alarm on account of their presence. 

Some citizens, he said, had "forebodings of 
disaster to the Republic on account of the prev- 
alence of intemperance. ' ' But, as great an evil 
as intemperance was recognized to be, he did 
not expect it to overwhelm the Nation. "I well 
remember", he said, "when literally everybody, 
— men, women, children and even the preachers 
used intoxicants as a beverage. It was thought 
to be a necessity, to ward off disease and pre- 
serve human life. It is not so now. Then it 
was regarded as a gross insult to decline to 
drink when invited to do so by a friend. Public 
opinion in this respect has changed. It is now 
on the side of sobriety. ' ' 

Neither did Mr. Harlan share in the alarm of 
some people on account of illiteracy among cer- 
tain classes of the population. The undesirable 
conditions along this line were steadily chang- 
ing for the better, and furthermore, in his 



324 JAMES HARLAN 

opinion, illiteracy did not "necessarily imply a 
lack of either patriotism or effective practical 
intelligence". Again, he said that "some of 
our fellow citizens have become alarmed lest a 
section of the Christian church may be success- 
fully engaged in machinations against our free 
institutions." But he found no grounds for 
this fear, since the prevailing sentiment of the 
age favored religious freedom, and this senti- 
ment was stronger than edicts or statutes. 

Finally, he found that "many most excellent 
citizens fear that our vast accumulations of 
wealth actually endanger the perpetuity of our 
free institutions, in the hands of private indi- 
viduals, and, also under the control of corpora- 
tions." But he believed that the founders of 
the Constitution, in providing ample protection 
for property and guaranteeing everyone the 
right to the fruits of his own labor, had builded 
wisely. "They seemed to think", he asserted, 
' ' that the certainty of the ultimate death of the 
rich as well as the poor, in the absence of power 
to entail estates, would sufficiently secure the 
distribution of the accumulations of the wealthy 
to their less fortunate kinsman, at the end of 
each one 's natural life, — or by escheat to the 
State, thus becoming the property of the whole 
people." The danger from the growth of 
corporations he also thought was frequently 
exaggerated, since he believed it would not be 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 325 

difficult ' ' to surround them with legal restraints 
that would effectually protect the people from 
the evils of which complaint is sometimes 
made." 

Taking everything into consideration, there- 
fore, and "having faith in God as a just and 
infinitely beneficent Ruler of Nations, and in the 
practical wisdom and intelligence of the Amer- 
ican people," he saw no reason to fear ap- 
proaching disaster to the Nation.^^^ 

The same vein of optimism runs through all 
the addresses which James Harlan delivered on 
patriotic occasions, such as Independence Day, 
Memorial Day, and reunions of veterans of the 
Civil War. For the men who had defended the 
Union during that four years' struggle he had 
an especially warm place in his heart, and he 
was generous in his praise of their valor and 
patriotism.^*' '^ 

Educational topics were naturally of interest 
to the man who had spent many years of his 
early life as a teacher; and in the years of his 
retirement he found ample opportunity to ex- 
press his views on the purposes, results, and 
methods of education. Especially was he wel- 
comed as a commencement speaker at De Pauw 
University, his alma mater, and at Iowa Wes- 
leyan University, of which institution he was 
virtually the founder. Apparently his first visit 
to "Old Asbury" after the close of his public 



326 JAMES HARLAN 

career was in 1887, when he was invited to de- 
liver the commencement address. 

He felt, he said, somewhat like Eip Van 
Winkle in thus returning, forty-two years after 
the close of his college days and thirty-two 
years after his last visit to the institution. The 
entire aspect of the University was changed and 
the students and citizens whom he had known 
so well had vanished. But he found that the 
student impulses of by-gone days were revived 
within him. "I may say", he declared, ''that I 
feel that I am still one of your number ; that the 
revolving years have not separated us in our 
impulses and aspirations ; that time has made of 
me only one of your elder brothers who can 
share in your hopes and manly and womanly 
purposes." 

In the address which followed this reminis- 
cent introduction five points stand out clearly. 
In the first place, the speaker was not much in 
sympathy with the so-called ''practical educa- 
tion" for undergraduates. He believed that a 
broad, general course of study was more de- 
sirable, because in very few cases did the in- 
dividual finally take up as a life work the 
vocation or profession which attracted him at 
the beginning of his college career. And in any 
case he should have the broad foundation of 
general culture which the regular academic 
course afforded. The second observation was 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 327 

that while the ''detailed technicalities" of any 
study "may seem to fade from the memory or 
become obscured", the essentials remain fixed 
in the mind if the instruction has been success- 
ful, and that the power to "make such knowl- 
edge vital", when occasion demands, is of 
greater importance than to remember all the 
details. 

But of greater significance than the book- 
learning which the conscientious student would 
gain, important as the speaker believed such 
knowledge to be, was the fact that he had "thus 
acquired the habit of systematic application, 
and learned how to learn, and where and how 
to obtain learning." Partly for this reason, 
and partly because he did not consider that the 
average student entering college was sufficient- 
ly mature to choose wisely the studies he 
should pursue, he favored an adherence to an 
established course of study such as in the ex- 
perience of educators ha^ proved most bene- 
ficial in its results. In other words, he was 
opposed to the elective principle which was 
gaining ground in some colleges and universi- 
ties. Finally, Mr. Harlan declared that college 
graduates had become the leaders in all the pro- 
fessions, pursuits, and enterprises "requiring 
continuity of effort, and sustained and vigorous 
action." Consequently, students should pre- 
pare themselves for leadership, not necessarily 



328 JAMES HARLAN 

in the spectacular deeds, but rather as "those 
who have persistently worked, and built up that 
characteristic of human greatness, an un- 
swerving tenacity of purpose. "^^^ 

Other educational discourses, as for instance 
commencement addresses at DePauw Univer- 
sity in 1892 and at Iowa Wesleyan University 
in 1895, and speeches before educational gath- 
erings of various sorts, might be mentioned.'^''^ 
But the same line of thought runs through all 
of them, and especially was Mr. Harlan firm in 
his opposition to any considerable extension of 
the elective principle in colleges and universi- 
ties. 

On August 16, 1894, Mr. Harlan addressed a 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
held at Cedar Rapids, on the subject: "Capital 
and Labor". He discussed the economic phases 
of capital and labor, their relation to each other 
and to the business of the world, including their 
relation to coinage and the currency, and closed 
with these words : 

It seems only needful that I should add, since Labor 
is the creator of all Capital, and all Capital is the 
accumulated product of Labor, Labor and Capital 
should never be at war with each other; and neither 
should ever attempt to coerce or rob the other. The 
combination of capitalists for the purpose of coercing 
laborers would be tyranny; and the combination of 
laborers to coerce capitalists would be robbery. Nei- 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 329 

ther can be tolerated by a free people. In a free coun- 
try wages must always and necessarily be the subject 
of voluntary contract between the employer and the 
employed, in all individual enterprises. The State 
must protect each in the exercise of this right or our 
personal freedom would be destroyed.'**^'^ 

The political speeches made by James Harlan 
during the first years of his retirement were 
almost as numerous as during his public career, 
and even down to the year of his death he will- 
ingly gave of his time and strength to promote 
the success of the party which he had helped to 
establish. As the years passed, his speeches 
became less partisan, more reminiscent, argu- 
mentative and philosophical. It will be worth 
while to note Harlan's attitude toward a few of 
the leading political issues of these later years. 

The Greenback movement of the late seven- 
ties met with decided disapproval from the ex- 
Senator. In a speech, prepared and apparently 
delivered in 1878, he review^ed with great care 
the theory of values, their dependence upon 
labor and skill, and the principles upon whicli 
the coinage of gold and silver was based. In a 
commercial nation like the United States an 
exclusive metallic currency was not desirable 
for many reasons, and hence a large part of the 
circulating medium must consist of paper 
money. As long as this paper money possessed 
a purchasing power of equal value with that of 



330 JAMES HARLAN 

coin, all was well. But the only method to 
maintain this equality and keep paper money 
at par value was to provide for its redemption 
in coin. 

The Nation had learned this truth through 
bitter experience in the early years of its exist- 
ence, and other countries had endeavored with 
marked failure to regulate their currency with- 
out a gold or silver standard to fall back upon. 
All these instances justified *'the conclusion 
that no paper, being promise to pay, can be 
maintained at par with coin, without ample pro- 
vision for payment at maturity, or for redemp- 
tion at the pleasure of the holder, in coin when 
issued in the form of a circulating medium". 
And yet a new political party had been organ- 
ized which insisted "that gold and silver and 
every thing of real value as recognized in trade, 
should be discarded as a circulating medium, 
and a new sort of paper money substituted", 
which was to contain no promise of redemption 
and which was to be issued "with the distinct 
understanding that they are never to be re- 
deemed in coin".'**^^ 

In the State campaign in Iowa in 1883, as 
will be remembered, the temperance question 
was an important issue on account of the recent 
defeat of the prohibitory amendment to the 
Constitution through an adverse decision of the 
Supreme Court. In a speech of this year James 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 331 

Harlan advocated giving prohibition a fair 
trial by legislative action, since the majority of 
the people of the State had voted in favor of 
this method of regulation. 

The tariff question also received considera- 
tion in this speech. Mr. Harlan was not in 
favor of any reduction in the tariff on foreign 
imports. The Democrats objected to a "pro- 
tective tariff ' ' and favored a ' ' tariff for revenue 
only". In the first place, he could not see that 
the distinction would make any material differ- 
ence, provided the Government continued to 
derive a large part of its revenue from the 
duties on goods coming into the country. The 
amount, if this policy were continued, would be 
the same in either case, whether the duties 
were applied for protection or for revenue only. 
On the other hand, if no duty was levied on 
foreign imports, it would necessarily mean an 
excise tax or direct taxation upon the people of 
this country, both of which would be very ob- 
jectionable and burdensome. It was *'too late 
in the day for any one to seriously insist that a 
tax on foreign imports, does not stimulate home 
products". The logical result of the policy of 
the Democratic party would be "to increase 
foreign imports, to diminish domestic manu- 
factures, and to stimulate the export of raw 
material to the work shops of Europe"; and 
finally to introduce a system of tariff that had 



332 JAMES HARLAN 

never received the sanction of experience in 
this country .^*^2 

The last great political issue to claim the at- 
tention of the veteran statesman was the free 
silver doctrine promulgated by William Jen- 
nings Bryan during the presidential campaign 
of 1896. In a number of speeches, Harlan at- 
tacked this doctrine and the other policies of its 
author, but nowhere are his views on the coin- 
age more clearly expressed than in a speech 
entirely devoted to that subject, which was de- 
livered at Aurora, Illinois, in August. ' ' I have 
no interest in the subject other than that of a 
private citizen of the United States, born in 
Illinois, brought up in Indiana, and a long time 
resident of Iowa ' ', he declared by way of intro- 
duction. ''I am not a candidate for any office, 
and am not engaged in any business requiring 
for its success any special legislation, or special 
favors from anybody. I think I can, therefore, 
consider the subject with entire impartiality." 

Then plunging into the subject, he noted that 
one of the great political parties of the day de- 
manded "the free and unlimited coinage of 
silver and gold on the ratio of sixteen grains of 
silver to one grain of gold ' '. The demand was 
apparently made in all honesty and therefore 
deserved respectful consideration. He defined 
coinage and described the method of coining 
money. ''Coined money", he said, however, 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 333 

"measures the quantity and quality of the gold 
and silver used in their formation, but does not 
measure the value of anything. Human labor 
and skill applied in the production of things of 
common desire is the real measure of their 
value. This has always been so since civiliza- 
tion commenced, and must always remain so 
until the divine edict requiring man to earn his 
bread by the sweat of his face shall be re- 
pealed." The difference between intrinsic and 
commercial value was pointed out and the fact 
was emphasized that ''an average day's work 
by a so-called common laborer is the true unit 
of all commercial values. That, and not the 
standard silver dollar nor the gold dollar, as 
some suppose, is the standard of measurement 
to which all commercial values are referred in 
all estimates and computations .... just 
as the average strength of a horse is the unit 
referred to by the practical engineer in the 
measurement of force. " 

"The value of money itself", Mr. Harlan 
continued, "is so measured. Money — real 
money — gold and silver — the money of the 
commercial world — which circulates at par 
everywhere — is worth in the world 's trade the 
human labor — the days' work — the human 
toil and skill it cost to gather it, grain by grain, 
from the sands of the placer, or from the rocks 
of the mountains." Therefore, since gold cost 



334 JAMES HARLAN 

more to produce than silver, a given quantity of 
gold had more commercial value than the same 
quantity of silver. This was the basis upon 
which the coinage of these two metals was 
based, and paper money was measured indirect- 
ly by the same standard, since its value in the 
commercial world was dependent upon the pos- 
sibility of its redemption in gold. Sound 
''fiat" money was therefore impossible, since 
neither governments nor individuals could 
create something out of nothing. 

''The current use of the standard silver dol- 
lar whose bullion value is now only a trifle more 
than one-half the bullion value of the gold 
dollar," the speaker admitted, "may seem to 
prove the unsoundness of this allegation." But 
it should be remembered that the "standard 
silver dollar does not circulate as money at par 
anywhere beyond the boundaries of the United 
States. Anywhere else it is worth only its bul- 
lion value except in the hands of bankers and 
brokers, who ship it back to the United States 
to be exchanged for gold. But here in the 
United States, it passes in trade at par with 
gold because it is practically redeemable at par 
in gold, in pursuance of an act of Congress de- 
claring it to be the policy of our government to 
maintain our gold and silver coins and Treas- 
ury notes at par with each other". 

Bryan and his followers claimed that if the 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 335 

free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio 
of sixteen to one were resumed, the bullion 
value of the silver dollar, which then was only 
fifty-three cents, would be raised to one hundred 
cents. To indicate the fallacy of this contention 
Mr. Harlan presented a careful review of the 
coinage history of the country, paying special 
attention to the act of 1873, which was the prin- 
cipal point of attack of the Democratic candi- 
date, and the Bland-Allison act of 1878. He 
also pointed out the fact that the mere coinage 
of silver could not increase its bullion value. 
Coinage was simply and largely a matter of 
convenience, to expedite business transactions 
by means of a convenient medium. The busi- 
ness of the world would go on, although more 
slowly to be sure, even if all the mints were 
closed and the coins were melted into bullion. 

In view of all these facts there could be but 
one conclusion in regard to the free-silver doc- 
trine of the Democratic party : 

If this policy should be adopted it can not be doubt- 
ed that the hope of realizing a profit from such 
coinage, equal to the difference between the mercantile 
value of the bullion and the par value of the coin, 
would stimulate the deposit of silver bullion at our 
mint to be coined, in excess of the ability of the gov- 
ernment to maintain it at the gold standard as at 
present. And if so, it is impossible to doubt, in the 
light of our own financial history, as well as that of 



336 JAMES HARLAN 

all the other commercial nations, that gold would go to 
a premium, and out of circulation, and these standard 
silver dollars, being supported by nothing else, would 
circulate at their bullion value, as does now the silver 
coinage of Mexico.'**^^ 

This outline of speeches and addresses may 
fittingly be brought to a close by a brief review 
of a paper read before the "Harlan Club" of 
Iowa Wesleyan University on April 28, 1898. 
For the first time in all the years since 1865, 
the ex-Senator ventured to speak of his per- 
sonal friend, Abraham Lincoln. He recounted 
the events of his first meetings with the Presi- 
dent and gave a vivid description of the Lincoln 
family, copied apparently from his Autobi- 
ographical Manuscript. His official relations 
with the President w^ere passed in review and he 
paid tribute to the patient courtesy with which 
he was always received. But it was not in his 
official life that the real Lincoln appeared. As 
one privileged to know him in the moments of 
relaxation and on social occasions, Mr. Harlan 
presented the following picture of Lincoln the 
man: 

He was in fact possessed of a very wide range of 
information ; was well versed in literature and science ; 
could quote verbatim from standard authors by the 
hour; was endowed with very acute mental percep- 
tions, and trenchant logical powers; and was, conse- 
quently, masterful in debate. He was the most 



SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 337 

patient and unselfish man I ever knew, with boundless 
patriotism and overflowing afifection and tenderness 
for every oppressed and suffering member of the 
human race .... He never needlessly injured 
anyone, nor permitted anyone to unjustly suffer, if he 
could properly prevent it. Hence he could truthfully 
say "It rests me after a day's hard work if I can find 
a good excuse for saving a man 's life. ' ' 

I will only add, in closing this recital, that I some- 
times met President Lincoln socially, when I had no 
"ax to grind, ' ' and no public measure to discuss ; and 
found him most delightful company. But these inter- 
views were rare, for the reason that he was almost 
constantly, day and night, overwhelmed with official 
duties, leaving him hardly time for necessary meals 
and sleep ; and I was equally busy with official duties 
in a minor position. 

Sometimes, said Mr. Harlan, "he and Mrs. 
Lincoln would drive to the hotel where I and my 
family resided, and taking my wife into their 
carriage, would drive away into the country; 
or to the Opera House to listen to rare music." 
The last drive they took together was shortly 
after the fall of Richmond, and they crossed the 
Potomac River into Virginia through a country 
devastated by war. "This drive", continued 
the speaker, "has become to me historical. 
First, because it was the last one taken by me 
in his company; and proved to have been so 
near the end of his life. And, secondly, because 
he had suddenly become, on the fall of Rich- 

22 



338 JAMES HARLAN 

mond and the surrender of the Confederate 
Army, April 9th, at Appomattox, a different 
man from what I had ever seen in him. His 
whole appearance, poise and bearing had mar- 
velously changed. He was, in fact, transfigured. 
That indescribable sadness which had previous- 
ly seemed to be an adamantean element in his 
very being, had been suddenly exchanged for 
an equally indescribable expression of serene 
joy as if conscious that the great purpose of his 
life had been achieved .... Yet there 
was no manifestation of exultation, or ecstacy. 
He seemed the very personification of supreme 
satisfaction. ' ' 

Mr. Harlan closed his paper with a brief ac- 
count of the assassination and funeral, and with 
a glowing tribute to the man whose body ''lies, 
at the capital city of his own State, in a great 
mausoleum, erected by the voluntary contribu- 
tions of his fellow citizens, peacefully awaiting 
the resurrection, while his memory is enshrined 
in the hearts of his countrymen; and his char- 
acter is revered by all good men and women 
throughout the world. "^'^'^ 



XXX 

Character and Services 

James Harlan was a man of strong personality. 
He was above the average in height, well-pro- 
portioned, broad-shouldered, and erect. He 
was possessed of strong, determined features, 
and his was a face upon which were written 
honesty and sincerity. Though not free from 
sickness in his earlier years, in later manhood 
he was seldom ill and his splendid constitution 
permitted him to take an active part in public 
affairs in the State of Iowa up to the date of 
his death, at the age of nearly eighty years. 

In education he was more fully equipped 
than many of the statesmen of his day, both in 
Iowa and in the Nation at large; and at the 
same time his practical knowledge of pioneer 
life fitted him to an eminent degree to represent 
the interests of the people of the West in the 
halls of Congress. Independence and self- 
reliance, two qualities born of life on the 
frontier, characterized his actions throughout 
his entire career. His character is a fine ex- 
emplification of the distinction between the 



340 JAMES HARLAN 

egoist and the egotist. He knew his limitations, 
and within those limitations he believed in him- 
self. The resourcefulness, for which the Amer- 
ican pioneer is justly noted, also enabled James 
Harlan to meet the emergencies and changing 
conditions of his life with unusual success. The 
duties and responsibilities of educator. Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction, lawyer, and 
surveyor, all were assumed and performed 
without hesitation and with results which lack 
of experience would seem to preclude. And 
when with scarcely any warning he was called 
to a seat in the Senate of the United States he 
was not found wanting in ability to adapt him- 
self to a new and larger field of activity and 
usefulness. 

James Harlan was a man of strong likes and 
dislikes. This quality made him warm friends 
and bitter enemies, and sometimes warped his 
judgment of men. He had few intimate and 
confidential friends, but to these he was loyal; 
and after his retirement from public life the 
bitterness of his enemies died away. His 
opinions on public questions were equally 
strong, but he never descended to the arts of 
the demagogue. His breadth of view and sense 
of justice saved him from fanaticism, and, with 
rare exceptions, as in the impeachment trial of 
Andrew Johnson, prevented him from the sup- 
port of policies which in their practical results 



CHARACTER AND SERVICES 341 

have proved unwise. On the other hand, the 
very intensity of his convictions imparted an 
earnestness and force to his speeches in the 
Senate on the great issues of slavery and recon- 
struction which "mere eloquence" could not 
have supplied. 

As a speaker, especially in the Senate, Harlan 
followed the method of the debater rather than 
that of the orator. His speeches were prepared 
with unusual care and he seldom made an im- 
portant statement which was not supported by 
an array of facts. Logical arrangement was a 
noticeable feature of all his extended speeches. 
While he could on occasion rise to flights of elo- 
quence, his appeal was rather to the reason 
than to the emotions, and his speeches convinced 
rather than aroused his hearers. 

Broad sympathy and a firm belief in the com- 
mon people served to soften the sterner phases 
of the statesman's character, and at the same 
time to instill in him a spirit of optimism which 
nothing could seriously affect. He always 
championed the oppressed, and his letters of 
sympathy and consolation to those in trouble 
or in sorrow because of the loss of loved ones 
during the war reveal his responsiveness to the 
sufferings of his fellow-beings. His belief in 
the common people is illustrated throughout his 
career by his insistence upon the fact that edu- 
cation or lack of education does not necessarily 



342 JAMES HARLAN 

affect the ability of the individual to be a good 
citizen nor alter his moral nature.*^ ^ The 
great majority of the men and women whom he 
had known in his boyhood and early manhood 
were without other educational advantages than 
the most elementary schooling afforded, and yet 
he bore frequent testimony that nowhere was a 
more honest, upright, and intelligent class of 
people to be found. 

Against the personal life of James Harlan no 
breath of suspicion has ever been cast. In this 
respect he passed unscathed through the fierce 
storm of charges which troubled the last years 
of his public service. His honesty was serious- 
ly attacked, but it is perhaps a sufficient com- 
mentary on the charges hurled at him that when 
once the partisanship which demanded his re- 
tirement from the Senate had accomplished its 
purpose, he met with only honor and respect 
and almost veneration from the people of Iowa, 
and those who had been most vehement in their 
attacks upon him were among the most enthusi- 
astic in extolling his character and in praising 
his high services to the State and Nation. 
James Harlan, in common with other men in 
public life, made mistakes and committed in- 
discretions ; but, judged by the standards of his 
period, his public career will stand the test of 
rigid investigation. 

In private life James Harlan was an ideal 



CHARACTER AND SERVICES 343 

citizen, interested in all that ministered to the 
upbuilding of the community in which he lived, 
and respected and beloved by his fellow-towns- 
men. ''In the little city of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, 
ripe in wisdom and experience as well as in 
years ; full of honors and beloved by everybody, 
young and old, ' ' wrote one who had long known 
and admired the ex-Senator, ''resides in peace- 
ful quietude, Iowa's first Superintendent of 
Public Instruction, her first Eepublican United 
States senator, and her first cabinet officer. "'^'^'^ 
In the home he was a devoted husband and a 
kind father. That his married life was emi- 
nently happy is amply revealed by the letters 
which passed between husband and wife, espe- 
cially during the gloomy first winter of the 
Senator's residence in Washington. 

James Harlan's greatest direct service to the 
State of Iowa was rendered during the first ten 
years of her statehood. As the first Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction he put the public 
school system of the State on a firm basis and 
established precedents which were followed with 
beneficial results by his successors. As the first 
President of Iowa Wesleyan University he 
builded well and he may justly be classed among 
the pioneers of higher education in Iowa. 

From the duties of the college class-room and 
office his labors were transferred to the United 
States Senate, where his career covers the 



344 JAMES HARLAN 

period of a great political and social revolution. 
There he joined the apparently uninfiuential 
minority of which Sumner, Seward, Trumbull, 
Fessenden, and Wade were the most conspicu- 
ous members; and his was the word that gave 
new hope to his colleagues and to the baffled 
free-soilers of Kansas and Nebraska.^*^^ His 
voice was continually raised against the further 
extension of slavery, and when war came he 
firmly supported the Government in its meas- 
ures to preserve the Union. To him more than 
to any other one person is due the credit for 
forcing upon an unwilling Congress, a con- 
servative President, and a prejudiced public the 
arming of the negroes ; and with a few others he 
should share the credit for securing the freedom 
and enfranchisement of an oppressed race. 

James Harlan was the most successful advo- 
cate in Congress for legislation in support of 
the Pacific Railroad, which welded the Nation 
together with ties of common interests as well 
as with bands of steel. Partly through his 
patient, persistent endeavor, in one Congress 
after another, millions have found homesteads 
and established prosperous communities in the 
West. And finally, when President Grant 's far- 
seeing and far-reaching plans for saving San 
Domingo from herself were misconstrued and 
denounced as selfish and treasonable schemes 
for personal and political gain, his was the elo- 



CHARACTER AND SERVICES 345 

quent protest which saved well-meaning but 
prejudice-blinded statesmen from perpetrating 
an act of injustice which, had it been consum- 
mated, would have written a humiliating 
chapter in the Nation's history. 

The career of James Harlan, stretching from 
a humble pioneer cabin in the woods of Indiana 
across the Mississippi to an infant Common- 
wealth and thence to the highest council cham- 
bers of the Nation in its time of trial, may well 
be followed with pride by every citizen of Iowa. 
And, so long as the youth of America seek to 
emulate the achievements of American states- 
men, they may find in the life of James Harlan 
an illustration of the possibilities for usefulness 
and honor which await him who, with persist- 
ence and yet without scorning expediency, dares 
champion the right and will not acquiesce in, 
much less be a party to, what he believes to be 
wrong. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 



347 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 

CHAPTER I 

1 Autobiographical Mamiscript and Papers, pp. 1, 2. This is 
the partially completed autobiography and the collection of 
letters and papers left by Mr. Harlan. 

2 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 2. 

3 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 2. 

* Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 10, 11, 

5 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 11-13. 

6 Aiitobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 4, 5. 

7 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 5, 6. 

CHAPTER II 

8 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 15, 16. 

9 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 16, 17. 

10 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 19-22. 

11 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 23-26. 

12 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 34. 

13 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 35. 

1* Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 35-39. 

CHAPTER III 

13 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 46, 47. 

16 Matthew Simpson afterward became a Bishop in the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and made for himself a world-wide 

349 



350 JAMES HARLAN 

reputation by his eloquence. President Lincoln spoke of him as 
the greatest orator he ever heard. 

17 Public speaking was given a prominent place at Asbury 
University. At the chapel exercises each morning four students, 
taking their turn in alphabetical order, were expected to deliver 
declamations, and in this way each student appeared on an 
average once a month. Once a month also there was "Public 
Saturday" at which about one-fourth of the students were 
called upon for declamations, and on these occasions the chapel 
room was usually filled with people from Greencastle and the 
surrounding country. Furthermore, the student body was di- 
vided into as many groups as there were professors, and the 
members of each group were required to appear each week 
before their respective professor and read an original essay. 
Finally, there were two strong literary or debating societies. — 
AutoMograpMcal Manuscript and Papers, pp. 73-77. 

18 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 100, 101. 

19 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 115. 

20 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 134, 135. In 
this speech Clay discussed five of the great questions of the day, 
as follows: a protective tariff, the re-charter of a National 
Bank, the limitation of the President's veto power, internal im- 
provements by the National government, and the distribution of 
the proceeds of the sale of the public lands to the States. 

21 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 152-164, pas- 
sim. 

22 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 167. 

23 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 178, 179. 

24 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 180, 181. 

25 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 181-183. 

26 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 184-188. 
While at Wapello Harlan visited the site of the Indian village 

which a few years before had been the home of Black Hawk 
and his band. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 351 

27 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 189. 

28 An interesting and detailed account of the winter in Mis- 
souri is to be found in the Autobiographical Manuscript and 
Papers, pp. 190-237. 

29 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 242, 243. 

30 An account of Harlan 's college life after his return from 
Missouri may be found in the Autobiographical Manuscript and 
Papers, pp. 243-298. 

CHAPTER IV 

31 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 278, 279. 

32 Miss Peck 's parents died when she was a child, leaving her 
under the guardianship of her uncle. Dr. Knight. 

33 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 304, 305. 

34 James L. Thompson spent the greater part of his life in 
Indiana as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 
the early forties he retired from active ministerial work, took 
a superannuated relation, and removed to the Territory of Iowa, 
where he located on a farm near Iowa City, the capital of the 
Territory. Here he lived for several years, devoting much of his 
time to the Iowa City College during its brief existence. 

35 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 313, 314. 
Jesse Bowen took quite a prominent part in political contests, 
and was a member of the State Senate in the Eighth and Ninth 
General Assemblies. 

36 John M. Coleman ' * was one of the leading citizens of the 
city and of the Territory, who had emigrated from the State of 
Indiana, a few years before, where he had gained prominence 
as a member of the Legislature, as presiding judge of an Indi- 
ana Court, and in business pursuits. After his arrival in Iowa 
he had been made United States Territorial Agent, to lay out 
into blocks and lots, the site for this city, to sell the same and 
apply the proceeds in the erection of a Territorial State House ' '. 
— Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 314. For an 



352 JAMES HARLAN 

account of the erection of the "Old Stone Capitol" see Sham- 
baugh 's Iowa City a Contribution to the Early History of Iowa, 
pp. 59-72. The Harlan home at this time was located on the 
corner of Iowa Avenue and Linn Street. 

37 Laws of Iowa, 1842-1843, pp. 75-81. The Trustees named 
in the act were as follows: John M. Coleman, Bartholomew 
Weed, George B. Bowman, Leonard Jewett, Anson Hart, Ed- 
ward K. Hart, William C. Reagan, Peter H. Patterson, Jesse 
Bowen, James P. Carleton, John D. Elbert, John A. Parvin, 
Joseph Williams, Robert Lucas, John Demoss, Stephen B. 
Gardner, A. E. McArthur, Curtis Bates, Isaac P. Van Hagan, 
Robert Hamilton, James L. Thompson, Milton M. Jennison, 
Ephraim Killpatrick, Roswell H. Spencer, Adam Reister, and 
Jesse P. Farley. 

The north half of block five was located on the south side of 
Market Street between Lucas and Governor Streets. It does 
not appear, however, that any college building was ever erected 
on this piece of ground. In fact, as far as can be learned the 
recitations and other exercises of the Iowa City College, 
throughout its existence, were held in a building located on the 
site of the present Christian church on Iowa Avenue. This 
building had been erected and occupied by the Methodist 
Protestants, but at about the time the Iowa City College 
opened its doors in 1846 it came into the possession of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. — See Shambaugh 's Notes on the 
Early Church History of Iowa City in the Iowa Historical 
Eecord, Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 567 ; and Laws of Iowa, 1845, p. 109. 

38 The Iowa Standard (Iowa City), Vol. Ill, No. 18, April 6, 
1843. 

30 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 315-317. 

*o The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, No. 2, June 24, 
1846. 

41 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 337, 338. 

42 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 338, 339. 
Mary Eunice Harlan, now Mrs. Robert T. Lincoln, is the only 
surviving child of James and Ann Eliza Harlan. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 353 

CHAPTEE V 
•*3 Constitution of Iowa, 1846, Article X, Section 1. 

44 Laws of Iowa, 1846-1847, pp. 131, 132, 134. 

45 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 340. 

46 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 341, 342. 

47 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 342, 343. See 
also The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, No. 38, March 
10, 1847. 

48 See The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, No. 38, 
March 10, 1847, for a reply to the attacks made on Harlan by 
the Democratic press. Unfortunately no file of the Iowa Cap- 
ital Reporter, the Democratic organ at Iowa City, has been 
preserved covering this year. See also Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 343, 344. 

49 The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, No. 37, March 3, 
1847. Twenty-five speaking points were listed in this schedule, 
and they were scattered over the entire organized portion of the 
State from Van Buren County to Dubuque. Moreover, a num- 
ber of other places not mentioned in this list were visited by 
Harlan during the month's campaign. 

50 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 344-371. 
61 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 354-356. 

52 Newspaper clipping in the Autobiographical Manuscript 
and Papers, p. 358. 

53 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 359. 

54 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 360. 

55 This incident is described in the Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 364-371. 

56 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 372. 

57 James Harlan was elected by a majority of 413 votes over 
Charles Mason. — See Pelzer's The History and Principles of 
the Democratic Party of Iowa, 1846-1857 in The Iowa Journal 

23 



354 JAMES HARLAN 

of History mid Politics, Vol. VI, p. 172. Dr. Pelzer's statement 
is based upon the election returns as found in the Public Ar- 
chives at Des Moines. 

CHAPTEK VI 

58 Constitution of Iowa, 1846, Article IV, Section 27. 

59 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 382; and The 
Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, No. 46, May 19, 1847. 

60 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 383, 384. 

61 The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, Nos. 46 and 48, 
May 19, and June 2, 1847. As a matter of fact Judge Mason 
had been given ample opportunity to express his opinion relative 
to the publication of the election law, for the Secretary of State 
had written to him asking his advice on that very point, and he 
had made reply. 

62 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 393. 

63 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 393, 394. See 
also The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, No. 50, June 16, 
1847. 

64 The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. I, No. 52, June 30, 
1847; and Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 394. In 
his statement to the court Hampton declared that for seven days 
James Harlan had been usurping the "powers, authorities and 
emoluments" of the office of Superintendent "to the great 
damage and prejudice of the lawful authority" of the State. 

65 Calkin v. The State, 1 Greene 68 ; and Autobiographical 
Manuscript and Papers, pp. 394, 395. 

66 A full discussion of the history and administration of these 
land grants may be found in Buffum's Federal and State Aid 
to Education in Iowa in The Iowa Journal of History and Pol- 
itics, Vol. IV, pp. 563-588. As originally granted by Congress 
the five hundred thousand acre grant was intended for the use 
of the State in making internal improvements. But the framers 
of the Constitution of 1846 diverted the grant to the use of the 
public schools, and the Constitution was approved by Congress. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 355 

67 Laws of Iowa, 1846-1847, pp. 160-164. The five per cent 
fund, like the five hundred thousand acre grant was originally 
intended for internal improvements, but was later diverted to 
educational purposes, with the approval of Congress. — See 
Shambaugh 's Documentary Material Belating to the History of 
Iowa, Vol. I, pp. 127, 128, 131, 132; and Buffum's Federal and 
State Aid to Education in Iowa in The Iowa Journal of History 
and Politics, Vol. V, pp. 37-40. 

^s The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. II, No. 7, August 
18, 1847. 

69 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 396. 

70 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1848 (Extra Ses- 
sion), pp. 56, 57. 

Ti^ Journal of the House of Representatives, 1848 (Extra Ses- 
sion), pp. 75-100. 

"^^ Laws of Iowa, 1848 (Extra Session), pp. 75, 80. 

73 Shambaugh 's Messages and Proclamations of the Gov- 
ernors of Iowa, Vol. I, pp. 371, 372. 

74 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 452, 453. 

75 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 453-479, 

76 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 489. 

77 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 489. 

78 The oflficial abstract of the returns was as follows : 

Thomas H. Benton 9,327 

James Harlan 8,112 

James Harlin 452 

James Harlen 340 

James Harland 34 

James Hartan 374 

T. H. Benton 2 

Samuel B. Howe 35 

Scattering 1 

— The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. II, No. 33, May 24, 

1848. 



356 JAMES HARLAN 

79 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 499 ; and The 
Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. II, No. 32, May 17, 1848. 

80 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 493-501. 

81 The Iowa Standard (New Series), Vol. II, No. 35, June 7, 
1848. 

82 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 504, 505. 

83 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 502-504. 

CHAPTER VII 

84 This house was located on the corner of Dubuque and Jef- 
ferson Streets, where the Medical Laboratory Building of the 
State University of Iowa now stands. The house was in an 
unfinished condition when purchased, but it is interesting to 
note that the price paid for the house and a large lot was 
$546.00. Practically this same property was sold for $7,500 in 
1902 at the time of the erection of the Medical Laboratory 
Building. 

85 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 553-559. 

86 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 563, 564. 

87 Autobiographical Maniiscript and Papers, pp. 573-579. 

88 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 583. 

89 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 584. 

90 See newspaper clippings in the Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 593-595. 

91 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 623-625. 

92 The manuscript of this speech is to be found in the Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 597-622. 

93 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 627, 628. 

94 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 628, 629. 

95 A detailed account of this controversy, together with a 
number of the articles written by Harlan, may be found in the 
Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 630-647. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 357 

06 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 650-662. 
97 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 695-698. 

08 This partnership continued for the period of about two 
years, when the land was sold. — See Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 704, 705. 

09 3 Greene 586; and Autobiographical Manuscript and 
Papers, p. 707, 

100 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 707. 

101 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 710-720. 

102 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 728. 

103 For an account of this month 's surveying see the Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 744-775. 

104 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 775-780. 

105 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 780-782. 

106 For a brief sketch of Iowa Wesleyan University, by which 
name the institution has been known since 1855, see Parker's 
Higher Education in loiva, pp. 154, 155. 

loT See the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 782- 
840, for an account of Harlan's life and activities as college 
president. 

CHAPTER VIII 

108 Salter 's The Life of James W. Grimes, p. 50. 

109 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 850. 

110 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 851. 

111 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 852-855. 

112 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 859. 

113 JowrnaZ of the Senate, 1854-1855, pp. 44-48. Fourteen 
names appeared on the first ballot, nine on the second. 

114 For a record of the successive ballots cast in this caucus 
see the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 867. 



358 JAMES HARLAN 

115 See the Daily Express and Herald (Dubuque), Vol. IV 
No. 208, December 19, 1854. . 

1^^ Journal of the Senate, 1854-1855, p. 49; and Iowa Demo 
cratic Enquirer (Muscatine), Vol. VII, No. 24, December 21 
1854. 

117 Letter from Samuel McFarland to Harlan, dated Decem 
ber 14, 1854. — Autohiographical Manuscript and Papers, p, 
865. 

i^s Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 871-873. 

119 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 876. 

120 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 877. 

121 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1854-1855, pp. 
102-111. 

122 Journal of the House of Bepresentatives, 1854-1855, pp. 
151-156, 163-178. 

^23 Iowa Democratic Enquirer (Muscatine), Vol. VII, No. 27, 
January 11, 1855. 

124 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1854—1855, pp. 
184-188. The final vote was as follows: James Harlan 52, 
Bernhart Henn 2, William McKay 1, James Grant 1. 

125 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1854—1855, pp. 
188-190, 208-211; Journal of the Senate, 1854-1855, pp. 122, 
129. 

CHAPTEE IX 

126 For Harlan's correspondence and a detailed account of 
his activities during the months from January to November see 
the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 938-1050. 

127 An account of Harlan's journey to Washington and his 
first impressions in the capital city may be found in the Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 1050-1061. 

128 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 34th Congress, p. 2. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 359 

129 See the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 
1079-1094. 

130 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 34th Congress, p. 388; 
Appendix, pp. 80, 81; and Autobiographical Manuscript and 
Papers, pp. 1151-1154. 

131 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 1169. 

132 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 34th Congress, Appendix, 
pp. 270-277. 

i33Ehodes's History of the United States, Vol. II, pp. 130, 
131. 

isiNew Yorlc Semi-WeeTcly Tribune, April 1, 1856. 

135 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 34th Congress, pp. 826- 
864, passim. 

130 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 1203-1206. 

137 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 1206-1208. 

138 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 34th Congress, Appendix, 
pp. 378-395. 

139 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 1242-1250. 

140 Clipping in the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, 
p. 1323. 

CHAPTEE X 

141 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 34th Congress, pp. 2079, 
2098, 2129, 2130. 

142 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 1506. 

143 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 1550. 

144 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 34th Congress, pp. 112- 
115. 

145 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 34th Congress, pp. 239, 
240. 

146 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 34th Congress, pp. 240- 
244. 



360 JAMES HARLAN 

147 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 34th Congress, pp. 244- 
299, passim. A more detailed account of this contest will be 
found in Clark's History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa, Ch. 
IV. 

148 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 1619, 1620. 

149 The vote stood: James Harlan 63, W. F. Coolbaugh 35, 
and Winslow F. Barker 1. — Journal of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, 1856-1857, pp. 360-362. 

150 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 1660 ; and 
Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 34th Congress, p. 499, 

CHAPTER XI 

151 See the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 
1781-1922, for an account of Harlan's activities during the 
summer and fall of 1857, together with letters received by him 
during this period, 

152 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 1924. 

153 This speech may be found in the Congressional Globe, 1st 
Session, 35th Congress, pp. 381-386. 

154 New York Semi-Weelcly Tribune, January 26, 1858. 

155 See newspaper clippings in the Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 1943-1948. 

156 Letter from Alvin Saunders to Harlan, dated February 7, 
1858. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 2106. 

157 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, p. 541. 

158 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, p. 623. 

159 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, pp. 639, 
900, 1059, 1152, 1257, 1407, 1408, 1618. 

leo Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, pp. 1756- 
1758, 1772-1770: Appendix, p. 552. 

161 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, pp. 1907, 
1914; Appendix, pp. 558, 559. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 361 

162 For Harlan's part in the debate on the credentials of 
Henry M. Eice, see the Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th 
Congress, pp. 2075-2079, 2163, 2823. An investigation was 
made and Mr. Eice was freed of the charges made against him. 
Harlan expressed his entire satisfaction at the result. 

CHAPTEE XII 

163 For correspondence and comments on this campaign and 
Harlan's activities during the summer of 1858 see the Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 2369-2440. 

164 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 2441, 2442. 

165 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 35th Congress, pp. 239- 
241, 244. 

166 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 35th Congress, pp. 310, 
311. See also pp. 315, 603. 

167 For a record of Harlan 's participation in the debate on 
these and other important bills see the Congressional Becord, 
2nd Session, 35th Congress, pp. 719, 720, 724, 735, 741, 742, 788, 
789, 810, 826, 827, 1313, 1383, 1384, 1512, 1513, 1517, 1519, 
1580, 1582, 1627. 

168 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 35th Congress, pp. 719, 
720. 

169 Clipping in the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, 
p. 2635. 

iTo See especially letters from Grimes to Harlan dated Janu- 
ary 13, January 26, February 15, and April 27, 1859.— ^wio- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 2554, 2569, 2634, 2743. 

171 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 2634. 

CHAPTEE XIII 

172 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 2750-2753. 

173 For a copy of this speech see pamphlet in the Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 2842-2855. 



362 JAMES HARLAN 

174 See newspaper clippings and comments by Harlan in the 
Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 2856-2858. 

175 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1860, pp. 79-81. 
For a detailed account of this election see Clark's History of 
Senatorial Elections in Iowa, Ch. VI. See also the Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 2874-3512, passim, for 
correspondence relating to the election. 

176 See The Tipton Advertiser, Vol. VII, No. 7, February 16, 
1860, and succeeding issues. 

CHAPTEK XIV 

177 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th Congress, p. 415. 

178 For instance see Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th 
Congress, pp. 214, 223, 758, 834, 1217, 1366, 1523, 1860, 2166, 
2191. 

'i^'!^ Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th Congress, p. 324; 
Appendix, pp. 54-58. 

180 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 3422-3430. 

181 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th Congress, pp. 990, 
991, 1129. 

182 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th Congress, pp. 1376- 
1378, 1407-1409. 

183 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th Congress, pp. 1678- 
1684, 1686. Neither the Harlan amendment nor the bill itself 
were passed at this time. 

184 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th Congress, pp. 1512, 
1773, 1774, 1796, 1992-2003, 2032, 2035. 

185 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 36th Congress, pp. 3271, 
3272, 

186 See Johnston's History of American Politics (1892), p. 
189, footnc+e. 

CHAPTER XV 

187 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 4155-4157. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 363 

188 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 4223. 

189 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 4193. 

190 Autobiographical Manuscript arid Papers, p. 4231. 

191 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 4258, 4259. 

192 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 4260. 

193 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 36th Congress, pp. 3-5. 

194 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 36th Congress, p. 222. 

195 This speech may be found in the Congressional Globe, 2nd 
Session, 36th Congress, Appendix, pp. 42-48. 

'i^^^ Washington Press (Iowa), "Vol. V, No. 34, January 23, 
1861. 

197 For instance see the Autobiographical Manuscript and 
Papers, pp. 4399-4459, passim. 

198 Letter dated January 13, 1861. — Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, p. 4403. 

199 Letter dated January 14, 1861. — Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 4405, 4406. 

200 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 4410-4413. 

201 For an account of this convention and its effect see 
Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 290-308. 

202 Letter dated March 4, 1861. — Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 4683, 4684. 

CHAPTER XVI 

203 For an account of this interview and a detailed descrip- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln and his family see the Autobiograph- 
ical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 4671-4675. It is to be noted 
that the choice of Simon Cameron was not a fortunate one. As 
a matter of fact, during the first year of the war. Chase was 
called upon to take an active part in directing military affairs, 
especially in the western armies, in addition to his regular 
duties. — See Hart's Salmon P. Chase, pp. 211-214. 



364 JAMES HARLAN 

204 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, p. 4753. 

205 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 4763, 4764. 

206 Letter dated April 1, 1861. — Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 4765-4767. 

207 Letter dated April 29, 1861. — Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers, pp. 4769-4772. 

208 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 37th Congress, p. 1. 

209 Scott 's The Story of a Cavalry Eegiment : The Career of 
the Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteers, pp. 1-10. 

210 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers, pp. 4902, 4903. 

CHAPTER XVII 

211 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 26, 
1347; Appendix, p. 352. 

212 For Harlan's part in the discussion of the Pacific Railroad 
Bill see Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 
2217, 2654, 2679, 2749-2753, 2757-2759, 2760, 2762, 2781, 2783- 
2785, 2832-2834. 

213 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 2249, 
2276, 2328, 2329, 2628-2633. 

214 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 335, 
336. 

215 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, p. 470. 

216 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. After reaching 
this point the papers in this collection are not page-numbered, 
and it was not thought desirable to attempt any pagination. 

217 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, Ap- 
pendix, pp. 315-323. 

218 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

219 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 2036, 
2037. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 365 

220 See Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 
621-628. For a clear account of the Battle of Shiloh, vindi- 
cating Grant from the charges made against him see Rich's 
The Battle of Shiloh, published by The State Historical Society 
of Iowa. 

221 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 1357- 
1359. 

222 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, p. 320, 

223 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, p. 142. 
See also pp. 160, 176, 178, 199. 

224 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, p. 375. 

225 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 1913, 
1979, 2160. 

CHAPTER XVIII 

226 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

227 Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. An account of 
Miller's appointment may also be found in Gregory's Samuel 
Freeman Miller, pp. 10-14. In a letter here printed, which 
Justice Miller wrote in 1888 to Mrs. James W. Grimes, he 
stated that it was Senator Grimes who drew up and circulated 
the paper of recommendation in the Senate. 

228 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 142, 
173. 

229 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 420- 
422, 425. 

230 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 469- 
472, 474-476. 

231 For instance see Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 37th 
Congress, pp. 506, 507, 528, 1285-1287, 1360. 

232 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 37th Congress, p. 536. 

233 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 37th Congress, pp. 958- 
960, 1046, 1047, 1241-1244, 1246. 



366 JAMES HARLAN 

234 Letter from L. L. Daniels to Harlan, dated January 5, 
1863. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

235 Letter from Samuel Storrs Howe to Harlan, dated July 
22, 1862. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

236 Letter from Harlan to Hawkins Taylor, dated December 
24, 1862. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

237 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 38th Congress, pp. 241- 
245, 257. 

238 For remarks on the land grant for Iowa railroads see Con- 
gressional Globe, 1st Session, 38th Congress, pp. 2325, 2326. 
The index will furnish references to the various other land 
grant bills which Harlan helped to shape. 

239 Letter from William B. Allison to Alonzo B. F. Hildreth, 
dated May 5, 1864. — Aldrieh's The Life and Times of Alonzo 
B. F. Hildreth, p. 380. 

240 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 38th Congress, pp. 1437- 
1440. 

241 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 38th Congress, p. 2240. 

242 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 38th Congress, pp. 2355- 
2419, passim. 

243 For instance, see letters from Samuel E. Curtis and N. P. 
Chipman to Harlan, dated May 3, 1864. — Autobiographical 
Manuscript and Papers. 

244 Letter from Harlan to Clarke, found in the William Penn 
Clarice Correspondence in the Historical Department at Des 



245 The author is indebted for information on this point to 
Mr. Eobert T. Lincoln, who is a son-in-law of Senator Harlan. 

246 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 38th Congress, pp. GI- 
GS. 

24T Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 38th Congress, pp. 365, 
469-472. 

248 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 38th Congress, p. 640. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 367 

249 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 38th Congress, pp. 250, 
251, 254-256. 

250 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 38th Congress, pp. 1231- 
1235, 1300-1302, 1303-1309. 

251 Letter from Harlan to L. D. Ingersoll, dated March 13, 
1865. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

CHAPTER XIX 

252 See the Neiv York Herald, Friday, March 10, 1865. 

253 Letter from Harlan to James Wright, dated January 4. 
1865. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

254 Newspaper clippings in the Autobiographical Mamiscript 
and Papers. 

255 Letter from J. Teesdale to Harlan, dated February 2, 
1865. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

256 Letter from J. H. Powers to Harlan, dated February 21, 
1865. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

257 Reply of Harlan to Powers, dated March 2, 1865. — Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers. 

258 See letters and newspaper clippings for the month of 
March, 1865, in the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

259 Letter from Harlan to James F. Wilson, dated March 24, 
1865. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

260 Newspaper clipping in the Autobiographical Manuscript 
and Papers. 

261 Copy of the minutes of the meeting in the Autobiograph- 
ical Manuscript and Papers. 

262 Letter from Samuel R. Curtis to Harlan, dated April 15, 
1865. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

263 After the death of President Lincoln, Harlan waived his 
right to a seat in the Cabinet, but Andrew Johnson promptly 
confirmed the appointment. 



368 JAMES HARLAN 

264 The New York Herald, Tuesday, May 16, 1865. 

265 This letter was dated August 26, 1865. — Newspaper clip- 
ping in the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

266 Burlington Weekly HawJc-Eye, Saturday, October 7, 1865. 

267 Beport of the Secretary of the Interior, 1865, pp. i-xxvii. 

268 Newspaper clippings found in a scrap-book in the Auto- 
biographical Manuscript and Papers. 

269 The New York Tribune, Thursday, January 25, 1866. 

270 See the Washington correspondence in The New York 
Herald, Thursday, June 7, 1865, for a statement of the diffi- 
culties confronting Secretary Harlan when he assumed the 
duties of the Cabinet position, because of the actions of his 
predecessor. For documents in connection with the Pacific Rail- 
road investigation see the Beport of the Secretary of the 
Interior, 1865, pp. 960-965. 

271 The New York Herald, Wednesday, July 14, 1865. 

272 Binns's Life of Walt Whitman, p. 213. 

273 For instance : ' ' Whitman made formal application, and 
was, in February, assigned a position in the Indian Bureau 
. . . . where he had a few hours of work each day, good 
pay, and could still continue his hospital visits in his leisure 
hours." — Carpenter's Walt Whitman in English Men of Let- 
ters, pp. 106, 107. Perry in his Walt Whitman, p. 181, says: 
"He was now a third-class clerk, drawing $1,600 a year." 

274 Whitman's letter of dismissal reads as follows: "The 
services of Walter Whitman, of New York, as a clerk in the 
Indian Office, will be dispensed with from and after this date. ' ' 
— Binns's Life of Walt Whitman, p. 213. 

275 O 'Connor embodied his charge in a pamphlet entitled 
"The Cood Gray Poet".— See Bucke's Walt Whitman. The 
charges are made more explicit in an introductory letter by 
O'Connor, found in this biography of Whitman. 

276 Whitman was subsequently given a place in the Attorney- 
General's office. — See Perry's Walt Whitman, p. 165. 



I 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 369 

During the years which followed the Whitman incident, 
James Harlan remained silent under the censure heaped upon 
him by the champions of Whitman. But, long years afterward, 
while he was li\dng in retirement in Mt. Pleasant, a courteous 
letter came from DeWitt Miller of Philadelphia, asking him to 
give the facts relating to the alleged act of injustice which 
every fresh biographer of Whitman assumed to be founded on 
fact. Breaking the silence of twenty-nine years, Harlan re- 
sponded to the stranger's request, in a letter of which the 
following is a copy, and which is here printed for the first time : 

"Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. 

July 18th, 1894. 
"Mr. Dewitt Miller, 
Union League, 

Philadelphia, Penn. 

"Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your letter of 14th inst. re- 
questing me to give you the reasons for the removal of the 
late Mr. Walt Whitman, in 1865, from a Clerkship in the office 
of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, of the Department of 
the Interior. 

"You must pardon me for suggesting that it has been usual 
for the Heads of Departments of the National Government to 
assign to the public — not to individuals for public use — 
their reasons for such official action. And that if they should 
so far forget the proprieties as to do so, such thoughtlessness 
would in many cases injure the reputation of the persons thus 
dropped from the public service, without being beneficial to any 
one. But in this case — impelled by a desire to gratify your 
wishes, I think I may so far depart from a commendable usage 
as to say generally that when I entered the Department of the 
Interior as its Chief, I found on its pay rolls a considerable 
number of useless incumbents who were seldom at their respec- 
tive desks. Some of them were simply supernumerary, and 
some of them were worthless. 

"Deeming it to be my duty to administer the business of the 
Department economically as well as efficiently, I endeavored, 
with the aid of the Heads of Bureaus to weed out the needless 
and worthless material. 

24 



370 JAMES HARLAN 

"Under this order Mr. Walt Whitman, and a considerable 
number of others were, from time to time, removed, as the same 
were reported to me by their respective chiefs, for my action 
in the premises. 

"It would not be possible for me now, after the lapse of 
about twenty-nine years, to recall in detail the reasons re- 
ported to me by their respective heads of Bureaus, for their 
discontinuance in the public service, even if it were desirable 
and proper to recite them, after many of them like Whitman 
have passed over to the other side. It is, therefore, deemed 
needful only to say in relation to his removal, that his Chief — 
Hon. Wm. P. Dole, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who was 
officially answerable to me for the work in his Bureau, recom- 
mended it, on the ground that his services were not needed. 
And no other reason was ever assigned by my authority. 

"You are kind enough to tell me that the reasons given for 
his dismissal by his friends, are favorable to him and unfavor- 
able to me. 

"I need only say on that point, that, according to my recol- 
lection, the same could be said truthfully of every one so re- 
moved by me during my incumbency of the office of Secretary. 
The least worthy usually raised the greatest clamor; making it 
clear to my mind that any one who would be seriously dis- 
turbed by such querulousness ought not to accept the position 
of Head of a Department, where he must necessarily perform 
such unpleasant duties. 

With great respect, 

Your obedient Servant, 

(Signed) Jas. Harlan." 

The author is indebted to Mr. Leon H. Vincent for informa- 
tion concerning this letter and for Mr. Miller's address, and to 
Mr. DeWitt Miller for permission to use the letter itself. 

2T7 Welles 's A Diary of the Eeconstruction Period in The 
Atlantic Monthly, 1910. 

278 See Ehodes 's History of the United States, Vol. V, pp. 
516-611; and Dunning 's Reconstruction: Political and Eco- 
nomic (American Nation Series), pp. 35-84. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 371 

279 Welles 's A Diary of the Reconstruction Period in The 
Atlantic Monthly, February, 1910, pp. 170, 173-175. 

280 Dunning 's Beconstruction : Political and Economic, p. 73. 

281 The Iowa State Begister, Vol. V, No. 168, August 1, 1866. 

282 For an interesting comment, see The Iowa State Begister, 
Vol. V, No. 168, August 1, 1866. 

CHAPTER XX 

283 Letter from William M. Stone to Klirkwood, dated March 
30, 1865. — Correspondence of Samuel J. Kirfcwood, Historical 
Department, Des Moines. In a letter of June 2nd Stone prac- 
tically confirmed this promise, although he stated that he would 
defer action until after the meeting of the Republican State 
Convention. 

284 Letter from James Harlan to Kirkwood, dated July 18, 
1865. — Correspondence of Samuel J. KirTcwood, Historical De- 
partment, Des Moines. 

285 Letter from Jacob Rich to Kirkwood, dated December 14, 
1865. — Correspondence of Samuel J. KirTcwood, Historical De- 
partment, Des Moines. 

286 See letters from James W. Grimes to Kirkwood, dated 
January 2 and 7, 1866; and also a letter from Jacob Rich to 
Kirkwood, dated December 29, 1865. — Correspondence of 
Samuel J. KirTcwood, Historical Department, Des Moines. 

287 See quotation from the Muscatine Daily Journal in the 
Burlington WeeTcly tiawTc-Eye, Saturday, November 25, 1865. 

288 Quotation from the Davenport Gazette in the Burlington 
WeeTcly HawTc-Eye, Saturday, November 25, 1865. 

289 Burlington WeeTcly HawTc-Eye, Saturday, November 25, 
1865. 

290 Iowa City Bepublican, Vol. XVII, No. 894, January 10, 
1866. 

291 Muscatine Daily Journal, Vol. XI, No. 125, January 3, 
1866. 



372 JAMES HARLAN 

292 The Weelly Gate City (Keokuk), Vol. XX, No. 21, Janu- 
ary 9, 1866. 

293 Burlington Weekly Eawk-Eye, Saturday, January 20, 1866. 

294 See the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Saturday, January 
20, 1866; and a letter from H. A. Wiltse to Kirkwood dated 
January 13, 1866. — Corres-pondence of Samuel J. Kirkwood, 
Historical Department, Des Moines. 

^^^^ Iowa City Bepublican, Vol. XVII, No. 895, January 17, 
1866. 

296 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1866, pp. 64-66. 

297 Daily Iowa State Register, Vol. IV, No. 302, January 12, 
1866. 

2&siowa City Bepublican, Vol. XVII, No. 895, January 17, 
1866. 

299 Elijah Sells, who had been appointed Indian Agent by 
Harlan, was practically the manager of the Harlan forces 
during this contest. 

300 See letters of James W. Grimes to Kirkwood, dated Janu- 
ary 2 and 7, 1866. — Correspondence of Samuel J. Kirkwood, 
Historical Department, Des Moines. 

301 Mr. Charles Aldrich, the late Curator of the Historical 
Department of Iowa, once related to the writer his recollections 
of this senatorial contest. He stated that the break in the 
friendly feelings of Kirkwood toward Harlan was occasioned 
not alone by the former's disappointment in this election, but 
also because Elijah Sells, Harlan's most active supporter, had 
earlier incurred the War Governor's ill-will. 

CHAPTER XXI 

302 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 40th Congress, p. 10. 

303 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 40th Congress, pp. 218- 
220, 223, 247. 

304 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 40th Congress, pp. 42-44. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 373 

305 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 40th Congress, p. 344. 

306 Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 40th Congress, pp. 1072- 
1078. 

307 Baily State Begister, Vol. VII, No. 82, April 4, 1868. 

308 Supplement to Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 40th 
Congress, pp. 435-438. 

309 Daily State Begister, Vol. VII, No. 126, May 26, 1868. 

310 Quoted from the Chicago Journal in the Baily State Beg- 
ister, Vol. VII, No. 131, May 31, 1868. 

CHAPTEB XXII 

311 Daily State Begister, Vol. VII, No. 193, August 13, 1868. 

312 Quoted from The Statesman in the Daily State Begister, 
Vol. VII, No. 215, September 8, 1868. 

313 Daily State Begister, Vol. VII, No. 215, September 8, 
1868. 

314 The New YorTc Herald, September 25, 1868. 

315 Copy of the Boynton article in the Congressional Globe, 
3rd Session, 40th Congress, p. 408. 

316 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, p. 409. 

317 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, pp. 409, 
410. 

318 Congressional Globe, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, p. 411. 

319 Quoted from the Davenport Gazette in the Daily State 
Begister, Vol. VIII, No. 62, March 12, 1869. 

320 Quoted from the Davenport Gazette in the Daily State 
Begister, Vol. VIII, No. 62, March 12, 1869. 

321 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 41st Congress, pp. 236, 
394 

S22 Weekly Iowa State Begister, Vol. XIV, No. 46, December 
29, 1869. 



374 JAMES HARLAN 

323 An outline of the Boynton charges, together with the 
vigorous defense of Harlan by the correspondent, who signed 
himself "Francois", may be found in the WeeMy Iowa State 
Register, Vol. XIV, No. 46, December 29, 1869. 

324 Letter from Harlan to William B. Allison, dated January 
5, 1870, found in the Archives Department, Des Moines. 

CHAPTEE XXIII 

325 See Congressional Gloie, 3rd Session, 41st Congress. 

326 Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 42nd Congress, pp. 327, 
329; Appendix, pp. 62-67. 

327 Daily Iowa State Register, Vol. X, No. 73, March 31, 1871. 

328 Uaily Iowa State Register, Vol. X, No. 77, April 5, 1871. 
"Eoscoe Conkling, Zach Chandler and others waited upon Mr. 
Harlan on the evening of the 28th to confer with him as to the 
course the friends of General Grant in the senate should pursue. 
He promptly told them what to do. Then they chose him to 
answer Sumner and Schurz and close the debate for the Grant 
side. . . . If he spoke it must be at the next morning's 
session. Like Webster in his reply to Hayne, he had but a 
single night to sleep upon his speech. ' ' — From a sketch of the 
life of James Harlan by Samuel M. Clark in The Midland 
Monthly, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 241. 

329 Quoted from the New YorTc Times in the Daily loiva State 
Register, Vol. X, No. 78, April 6, 1871. 

330 See quotations from the Washington Chronicle in the 
Daily Iowa State Register, Vol. X, No. 77, April 5, 1871. 

331 Sketch of the life of James Harlan by Samuel M. Clark in 
The Midland Monthly, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 242. 

CHAPTER XXIV 

332 See letter from Harlan to Allison, above pp. 250, 251. 

333 For a discussion of this contest see Clark's History of 
Senatorial Elections in Iowa, Ch. X. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 375 

334 For a copy of this letter see the Burlington WeeTcly 
HawTc-Eye, July 6, 1871; and especially the Dubuque Herald, 
June 22, 1871. 

335 Burlington WeeJcly Eawlc-Eye, July 6, 1871. 

336 Burlington Weekly HawJc-Eye, July 6, 1871. 

337 For the attitude of newspapers in various parts of the 
State toward the Harlan boom see quotations from other papers 
in the Daily Iowa State Register, Vol. X, Nos. 202, 204, 208, 
and 212, September 1, 5, 8, and 13, 1871. 

338 ' ' Mr. Harlan, of course, will do all he can to gain re- 
election, all he may honorably," declared an influential Allison 
editor, "but farther and lower than this, no one believes he 
will go. . . . So, as far as the men themselves are con- 
cerned, the struggle is not bitter and fierce, but fair and manly, 
and on this line we are confident they will fight it to the end. ' ' 
— Daily Iowa State Begister, Vol. X, No. 187, August 15, 1871. 

339 For a summary of these charges see the Daily Iowa State 
Begister, Vol. X, No. 307, January 6, 1872. 

340 Daily Iowa State Begister, Vol. X, No. 305, January 4, 
1872. The statement of this charge varies in different news- 
papers, a fact which in itself indicates its unsound basis. 

341 Burlington WeeTcly HawTc-Eye, December 28, 1871. 

342 Burlington WeeTcly HawTc-Eye, January 4, 1872. Harlan 
made a final reply to this attack just before the meeting of the 
legislative caucus. — Burlington WeeTcly HawTc-Eye, January 11, 
1872. 

343 Daily Iowa State Begister, Vol. X, No. 298, December 27, 
1871. 

344 Harlan 's reply may be found in the Burlington WeeTcly 
HawTc-Eye, January 11, 1872. Grinnell's defense was printed in 
the Daily Iowa State Begister, Vol. X, No. 300, December 29, 
1871. 

345 Daily Iowa State Begister, Vol. X, No. 307, January 7, 
1872. 



376 JAMES HARLAN 

346 Burlington Weekly HawJc-Eye, January 11, 1872. 

347 The vote on the final ballot was as follows : William B. 
Allison, 63; James Harlan, 40; James F. Wilson, 17. — Daily 
Iowa State Register, Vol. X, No. 310, January 11, 1872. 

348 Journal of the House of Representatives, 1872, pp. 95, 96. 

349 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, January 18, 1872. 

350 The author is indebted to Hon. Washington I. Babb for 
the story of this midnight conversation. 

"I have not given the Senator's exact words," he writes, 
"but I have given the substance and in the main, the form of 
words he used." 

CHAPTER XXV 

351 For a general discussion of the Credit Mobilier investiga- 
tion see Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. VII, Ch. 
XL. 

352 For Durant 's testimony before the Poland and Wilson 
committees see House Reports, 3rd Session, 42nd Congress, Re- 
port No. 77, p. 178; Report No. 78, pp. 93-109, passim. For 
Crane's testimony see Senate Reports, 3rd Session, 42nd Con- 
gress, Report No. 519, pp. 99-109, passim. 

353 House Reports, 3rd Session, 42nd Congress, Report No. 77, 
p. 178. 

334 House Reports, 3rd Session, 42nd Congress, Report No. 78, 
p. 102. "I had some county bonds which I had had for some 
ten or fifteen years," said Mr. Durant in further explaining 
his interest in Iowa politics, "and they were repudiating them; 
and there were a variety of other matters there on which some 
of the candidates for the legislature had been opposing us. We 
had even gone so far as to carry the matter into the United 
States courts, and had the commissioners arrested for not levy- 
ing taxes to pay those bonds. ' ' 

355 Senate Reports, 3rd Session, 42nd Congress, Report No. 
519, pp. 2-14. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 377 

J^<^ Senate Reports, 3rd Session, 42nd Congress, Report No 
519, pp. V, vi. ' I- • 

357 See the sworn statement of Elijah Sells, who managed 
Harlan s campaign in 1865, in the Burlington Weekly EawJc- 
Eye, February 13, 1873. 

358 The Iowa Daily State Register, Vol. XII, No. 15, January 
18, 1873. 

359 See the Burlington Weekly Eawk-Eye, January 30 to 
March 6, 1873. 

^^^ Burlington Weekly Eawk-Eye, March 6, 1873. 
CHAPTER XXVI 

361 See the Burlington Weekly Eawk-Eye for the last four 
nionths of 1875, and for January, 1876. For a discussion of 
this senatorial contest see Clark's Eistory of Senatorial Elec- 
ttons in Iowa, Ch. XL 

362j/je Iowa Daily State Register, Vol. XV, No. 26, January 
8, 1876. 

363 The Iowa Daily State Register, Vol. XV, No. 30, January 

13, 1876. 

364 The Iowa Daily State Register, Vol. XV, No. 32, January 
15, 1876. ^ 

365 Burlington Weekly Eaivk-Eye, January 27, 1876. 

366 The Iowa Daily State Register, Vol. XV, No. 31, January 

14, 1876. ^ 

367 The author is indebted to Mr. Washington I. Babb for 
these facts. 

368 Burlington Daily Eawk-Eye, August 14, 1881. 

369 7ou'a State Register, Vol. XX, No. 235, September 30, 
1881. 



370 



Burlington Daily Gazette, September 28, 1881. 

See Clark 's Eistory of Liquor Legislation in Iowa in The 



378 JAMES HARLAN 

Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VI, No. 4, for a 
discussion of the prohibitory amendment campaign. 

3"2 Copy of the address found in the Autobiographical Manu- 
script and Papers. 

373 For a description of the work of this Court and for the 
loan of a number of volumes of records and reports the author 
is indebted to Dr. Andrew S. Draper, late Commissioner of Edu- 
cation of the State of New York, who was a member of the 
Court. See Senate Beports, 1st Session, 49th Congress, Eeport 
No. 567; Rules of the Court of Commissioners of Alabama 
Claims; List of Claims Before the Court of Commissioners of 
Alabama Claims; and Alphabetical Index to Claimants before 
the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims. 

374 Congressional Record, 1st Session, 47th Congress, House 
Bill No. 4197 ; and United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XXII, 
p. 98. 

375 House Beports, 1st Session, 49th Congress, Report No. 945. 

376 Statement made by Dr. Draper in a personal letter to the 
author. 

377 From a sketch of the life of Mrs. Harlan written by her 
husband, found in the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

378 ingersoll's Iowa and the Bebellion, p. 739. For a more 
detailed account see a sketch of the life of Mrs. Harlan written 
by her husband, as well as a large number of newspaper clip- 
pings, found in the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers; 
also a sketch of Mrs. Harlan's services at the front, in the 
Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. II, pp. 489-508. 

CHAPTEE XXVII 

379 See Clark's History of Liquor Legislation in Iowa in The 
Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. VI, No. 4, pp. 529- 
594. 

380 Speech of James Harlan as Temporary Chairman of the 
Bepublican State Convention, August 16, 1893, reprinted in 
pamphlet form from The Daily State Begister, August 17, 1893. 



NOTES AND REFERENCES 379 

381 The Daily State Register, August 17, 1893. 

382 Jowa Official Register, 1894, p. 100. 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

383 The original members of the Commission were Governor 
Horace Boies, James Harlan, Samuel J. Kirkwood, George G. 
Wright, Edward Johnstone, and D. N. Eichardson. — Laws of 
Iowa, 1888, p. 172. 

384 Third Biennial Report of the Iowa Soldiers and Sailors 
Monument Commission, pp. 8-17. 

385 The Midland Monthly, Vol. V, No. 2, pp. 99-113. 

386 See The Burlington HawJc-Eye (Weekly), July 4, 1895, 
for editorials and quotations from other newspapers. 

387 The Iowa State Register (Weekly), July 12, 1895. 

388 The Iowa State Register (Weekly), July 19, 1895. 

389 Proceedings of the Convention in The Iowa State Register 
(Weekly), August 20, 1897. 

390 Annals of Iowa (Third Series), Vol. IV, pp. 87-90. 

391 The author is indebted for information, concerning this 
visit, to Mrs. Alice L. Taylor of Mt. Pleasant, an intimate ac- 
quaintance of the Harlan family. 

392 Shambaugh 's Messages and Proclamations of the Gov- 
ernors of Iowa, Vol. II, pp. 454-456. 

393 For an extended account of the funeral see the Daily Iowa 
State Capital, Vol. XVI, No. 244, October 9, 1899. 

394 Laws of Iowa, 1907, p. 228. Samuel J. Kirkwood is the 
other lowan whose memory is thus honored. 

CHAPTER XXIX 

395 Manuscript copy of address in the Autobiographical Man- 
uscript and Papers. Ten years later, in 1895, Mr. Harlan again 
addressed the old settlers at Mt. Pleasant, and he responded to 
similar calls at various points in southeastern Iowa from time 
to time. 



380 JAMES HARLAN 

396 Manuscript copy of address in the Autobiographical Man- 
uscript and Papers. 

397 For instance, see addresses at the reunion of the Four- 
teenth Iowa Infantry at Mt, Pleasant on October 21, 1897, and 
before the Loyal Legion at Des Moines on February 12, 1899. 
— Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

398 Manuscript copy of address in the Autobiographical Man- 
uscript and Papers. 

399 Harlan 's address at De Pauw University in 1892 was on 
the subject, Aims and Advantages of Scholastic Instruction. 
At Iowa Wesleyan University in 1895 he spoke on the Utility 
of College Training. See also an undated address before an 
"Educational Convention". — Autobiographical Manuscript and 
Papers. 

*oo Manuscript copy of address in the Autobiographical Man- 
uscript and Papers. 

401 This speech bears the title, Speech on the Financial 
Questions. It is dated 1878, but the place or places of delivery 
are not indicated. — Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

*02 Manuscript copy of speech in the Autobiographical Man- 
uscript and Papers. This speech was delivered at Burlington 
some time during the late summer or early fall, and probably 
at other points in southeastern Iowa. 

403 Manuscript copy of speech in the Autobiographical Man- 
uscript and Papers. See also a speech at Council Bluffs on 
September 12, 1896, 

404 Manuscript copy of address in the Autobiographical Man- 
uscript and Papers. 

CHAPTER XXX 

405 See above pp. 323, 324. 

408 Article on James Harlan by Frank Hattou. — Clipping in 
the Autobiographical Manuscript and Papers. 

407 See above pp. 95-100. 



INDEX 



381 



INDEX 



Abolitionists, principles of, 80 

Acts, legislative, publication of, 
51-53 

Addresses, synopsis of, 317-338 

Agency City, journey to, 45 

Agricultural College, land grant 
for, 118, 126 

Agricultural colleges. State, bills 
for, 126, 165; Harlan's advo- 
cacy of bill for, 127, 169; pas- 
sage of bill for land grant for, 
169; reference to, 301 

Agriculture, period of development 
of, 191; improvement of meth- 
ods of, 322 

Agriculture, Committee on, 93 ; 
work of Harlan in, 94 

Alabama Claims, Court of, work 
of first, 293, 294; Harlan ap- 
pointed to second, 293 ; awards 
by, 294 

Aldrich, Charles, acknowledgment 
to, xiii; statement of, 372 

Allegiance, law requiring oath of, 
186, 187 

Allison, William B., letter from 
Harlan to, 250; defeat of, 260; 
candidacv of, against Harlan 
262, 264; election of, 269; 
congratulation of, by Harlan 
270; election expenses of, 281 
letter from, 366; letter to, 374 
vote for, 376 

Andrew (Iowa), Harlan at, 47 

Anti-Kansas-Nebraska Party, 80 ; 
victory of, 81; Harlan nomi- 
nated by, 83, 84 

Appointments, right to make, 231 

Appomattox, battle of, 338 

Armory, national, petition for, 
175 

Arthur, Chester A., Cabinet of, 
289, 290, 293 

Asbury University, life of Harlan 
at, 16-34, 259, 351; influence 
of, 18, 19; commencement ad- 
dresses at, 325-328; public 
speaking at, 350 (see also De 
Pauw University) 



Asia, American commerce with, 

123 
Aurora (Illinois), speech at, 332 
Autobioffraphical Manuscript and 

Papers, description of, ix-xi 

Babb, Max W., acknowledgment 
to, xii 

Babb, W. I., acknowledgment to, 
xii; advice of Harlan to, 271- 
273; story told by, 376, 377 

Bank, National, re-charter of, 350 

Bankrupt law, discussion of, 177, 
178 

Barker, Winslow F., vote for, 360 

Bates, Curtis, 352 

Bayard, James A., 106 

Belknap, William W., candidacy 
of, 262, 285 

Bell, John, 151 

Benjamin, Judah P., 93, 106 

Benton, Thomas H., Jr., Harlan 
at home of, 47; nomination of, 
59; campaign of, 60; character 
of election of, 161-163; ar- 
raignment of, by Harlan, 70 ; 
reelection of, 70; vote for, 88, 
355; reference to, 135 

Berry, Lucien W., 90 

Bible, Harlan's dependence on, 87 

Black Hawk, home of, 350 

Blakeslee, P. D., 314 

Bland-Allison act, 335 

Bloomfield, speech by Harlan at, 
146, 147 

Bloomington (Indiana), 26 

Boies, Horace, 379 

Border ruffians, work of, 96 

Bowen, Jesse, 37; political career 
of, 351, 352 

Bowman, George B., 352 

Boynton, H. V., libellous allega- 
tions of, against Harlan, 238- 
242, 246-250, 251, 263, 265; 
outline of charges of, 374 

Breckenridge, John C, 151, 159 

Brigham, Johnson, vii; author's 
preface by, ix-xiv 

Brotherhood of human race, 321 



384 



INDEX 



Browning, Milton D., action of, 
85, 86 

Browning, O. H., sale of land by, 
237; reference to, 242 

Bryan, William J., free silver doc- 
trine of, 332-336 

Buchanan, James, first message 
of, 109; debate over message 
of, 110, 111; Harlan's view of 
policy of, 113, 132, 137139; 
bill vetoed by, 141, 142; meet- 
ing of objections of, by Harlan, 
142, 143 

"Bullion, Old". 47 

Burlington, visitors at, in 1843, 
26, 28; notoriety of, 27; plank 
road to, 71; reception to Har- 
lan at, 145; village of, 318 

Burlington and Missouri River 
Railroad, extension of, 238; in- 
terest of Harlan in, 240 

Burlington Gazette, rumor report- 
ed in, 289 

Burlington Hawk-Eye, letter in, 
48; attitude of, toward reelec- 
tion of Harlan, 216, 217; Har- 
lan defended by, 281, 284; 
Harlan's name proposed by, 
308 

Burton, Mrs., 21 

Butler, Andrew P., statement of, 
104, 105 

Butler, Jacob, 83 

Byington, Le Grand, controversy 
between Harlan and, 69 

Cabinet, selection of, by Lincoln, 

157, 158, 159, 192; lack of 
harmony in, 180; members of, 
199; disruption of, under John- 
son, 210-212, 216; terms of 
service of members of, 232 

Calhoun County, surveys in, 74 
California, appropriation for sur- 
vey of lands in, 117; railroad 
to, 121, 125; route favored by 
Senators of, 125 
Calkin, Asa, suit against, 55 
Cameron, Simon, appointment of, 

158, 159; incapacity of, 363 
Camp, pioneer, description of, 2, 3 
Camp Harlan, Iowa troops at, 164 
Campaign, presidential, of 1860, 

Harlan's part in, 146148; of 
1864, Harlan's part in, 186; of 
1868, Harlan's part in, 235 
Campaign, State, hardships of, in 

1858, 120; Harlan's part in, in 

1859, 130-134; Harlan's part 
in, in 1867, 223; senatorial, of 
1872, Harlan and Allison in, 



260-269; sectional argument in, 
263, 267; characterization of, 
270 

Campaign funds, use of, by Har- 
lan, 275, 276, 278, 279, 280; 
acceptance of, by politicians, 
281 

Campaigns, political, in early 
Iowa, 44-49, 60 

Canal, petition for, 175 

Canvassers, board of, count by, 
61, 62 

Capital and Labor, views of Har- 
lan relative to, 328, 329 

Capitol, national, statue of Harlan 
in, 315 

Capitol, Old, erection of, 37, 351, 
352 

Carleton, James P., 352 

Carroll County, surveys in, 72 

Cass, Lewis, 93 ; memorial pre- 
sented by, 98 

Cavalry, horses for, 164 

Cedar Falls, mass meeting at, in 
1860, 146 

Central America, plans for ac- 
quisition of, 132 

Chandler, Zachary, delight of, at 
speech by Harlan, 258; refer- 
ence to, 374 

Charleston, capture of Fort Sum- 
ter at, 160 

Chase, Salmon P., appointment of, 
159; work of, 363 

Cherokee Indians, sale of lands 
of, 236, 237, 239-242, 264, 285 

Chevenne Indians, massacre of, 
189, 190 

Chicago, stage lines to, 92 ; plat- 
form made at, 157 

Chickasaw Indians, sale of stocks 
of, 223 

Chipman, N. P., letter of, 366 

Choctaw Indians, sale of stocks 
of, 223 

Cincinnati Gazette. Harlan libelled 
by, 238, 246, 263 

Circuit-riders, coming of, to fron- 
tier, 8 ; character of, 9 

Civil War, beginning of, 157, 
163; Iowa troops in, 164, 173; 
arming of negroes for, 170; 
dissatisfaction with prosecution 
of, 179, 180; Mrs. Harlan's 
services during, 295, 296; re- 
unions of veterans of, 325 

Claggett, Thomas W., votes for, 87 

Claims, Alabama, courts of, 293, 
294 

Claims, Court of, establishment of, 
140, 178 



INDEX 



385 



Clark, Dan E., acknowledgment 
to, xiii 

Clark County (Illinois), Lamotte 
prairie in, 2 ; visit to, 12 

Clarke, William Penn, letter to, 
186 

Clarkson, Coker F., letter from, 
155, 156 

Clarkson, James S., Harlan de- 
fended by, 246 

Clay, Henry, Harlan's description 
of, 22, 23 ; Harlan's support of, 
33; letter of, 150; speech of, 
350 

Clingman, Thomas L., motion 
made by, 149 

Clinton (Missouri), school taught 
by Harlan at, 30-32 

Coinage, gold and silver, 329, 
330; Harlan's views on, 332- 
336 

Coleman, John M., home of, 37; 
facts about life of, 351, 352 

Collamer, Jacob, speech of, 97 

College, Harlan's life at, 16-34 

Colleges, Harlan's view of life and 
education in, 326; work of 
graduates of, 327; elective 
courses in, 328 

Colorado, admission of, 223 

Columbia, District of, public 
schools of, 140, 141; emancipa- 
tion of slaves in, 174; criminal 
law in, 174; election laws of, 
184, 185; oath of allegiance in, 
186, 187; affairs in, 203; Har- 
lan's services to, 222, 234 

Columbian Exposition, Iowa art 
at, 311 

Commerce, American interest in, 
123 

"Compromiser, Great", supporter 
of, 33 

Confederate Government, 155 ; 
treatment of Union prisoners 
by, 187-189; Indian allies of, 
223 ; depredations by cruisers 
of, 294; crushing of, 301 

Congress, school lands granted by, 
56; discussion of slavery in, 95, 
96; Kansas question in, 97, 
98, 99 : Lecompton Constitution 
in, 109-114; representation of 
States in, 115; appropriations 
by, 117; Pacific Railroad Bill 
in, 121-126; bills for agricul- 
tural colleges in, 126, 127; 
Homestead Bill in, 136, 141- 
144, 148; power of, over Terri- 
tories, 137; defenders of South 
in, 149; extra session of, in 



1861, 163 ; war measures of, 
164, 165, 170, 181; Grant's 
defenders in, 174 ; petitions to, 
174, 175; reconstruction and 
impeachment of Johnson in, 
223-234; test oath for members 
of, 227; San Domingo question 
in, 252, 253-259; power of, to 
declare war, 254, 255; law 
passed by, 315; estimate of ser- 
vices of Harlan in, 343-345; 
State Constitution approved by, 
355 

Congressional Globe, Harlan's rec- 
ord in, 191 

Conkling, Roscoe, 374 

Connecticut Emigrant Company, 
sale of land to, 239 

Connelly, Mary, birth of, 1 ; mar- 
riage of, 2; patience of, 7 

Conscription Act, support of, by 
Harlan, 181; amendment to, 
189 

Conservation, policy of, 202 

Constitution, State, of 1846, 41; 
provision of, 51, 53, 66, 354; 
of 1857, adoption of, 108; pro- 
hibitory amendment to, 290- 
293, 297, 330 

Constitution, United States, pro- 
posed amendments to, 155, 182, 
183; place of Southern States 
under, 224-230; violation of, by 
Andrew Johnson, 230-232 ; war 
power in, 254, 255; makers of, 
324 

Contract theory, opponent of, 150, 
151 

Cook, Ebenezer, mention of, for 
Senate, 83, 84, 85; votes for, 
88 

Cook, John P., mention of, for 
Senate, 83 

Coolbaugh, "W. F., vote for, 360 

Cooley, D. N., appointment of, 
207; charge against, 248 

Copperheads, work of press of, 
237; attack on Harlan by, 251; 
restraint of, 300. 301 

Corcoran, W. W., dinner given 
by, 100 

Corporations, power of, 324; re- 
straints on, 325 

Corruption, charges of, against 
Harlan, 220, 221, 236, 237, 
238-242, 246-250, 264-268, 
280, 281 

Council Bluffs, wagon journey to, 
91 

Counties, school system in, 57; 
railroad bonds of, 376 



25 



386 



INDEX 



Crane, Henry C, 276 

Credit Mobilier, Harlan's connec- 
tion with, 275-282 

Crittenden, John J., 93, 140 

Crura, William, Harlan's partner- 
ship with, 71; reference to, 180 

Currency, national, forms of, 300 ; 
views of Harlan relative to, 
329, 330 

Curtis, Samuel R., letter from, 
198, 366, 367: senatorial as- 
pirations of, 217 

Cutler, Elisha, refusal of, to issue 
certificate of election, 54; con- 
duct of, 61; Harlan's opinion 
of, 66 

Daniels, L. L., letter from, 366 

Davenport, Harlan at, 47 

Davenport Gaze'te. Harlan de- 
fended by, 216, 242, 243 

Davis, Jefferson, Harlan defended 
by, 119; proposed trial of, 211 

Davis, Timothy, 83, 135 

Davis County, settlers of, 146, 
147 

Dayton, W. L., 103 

Dean, Henry Clay, falsity of state- 
ments of, 128, 129 

Deficiency Bill, opposition of Har- 
lan to phase of, 116-118; pas- 
sage of, 118 

Delaware Indians, sale of lands 
of, 248, 249, 264 

Democratic Partv, supremacy of, 
in Iowa, 41, 42, 67, 80; attacks 
of press of, on Harlan, 43 ; tac- 
tics of, 51, 61, 62, 67, 84, 86, 
89; nomination by, 59; dis- 
graceful victory of. 62 ; defeat 
of, in Iowa, 81, 89, 134, 135; 
attitude of wings of, toward 
Kansas troubles, 110-112, 113, 
131; indictment of, bv Harlan, 
131-134, 145, 153: attitude of, 
toward slavery, 137-140; feel- 
ing of members of, in Iowa, 
154; treason of members of, in 
Iowa, 179; Harlan distrusted 
by, 273; record of, 300, 301; 
tariff policy of, 331; free silver 
doctrine of, 332 

Democratic State Convention, 
nomination by, 59 

Demoss, John, 352 

Dennison, William, 211 

De Pauw University, Harlan at, 
16-34 : commencement address 
at, 325-328; public speaking at, 
350 (See Asbury University) 

Des Moines, convention at, 131; 



speeches by Harlan at, 146, 
236; Republican State Conven- 
tion at, 297; monument at, 
306, 307 

Dewey, Laurin, suggestions of, 82 

Dewitt, Harlan at, 47 

Dillon, John P., petition of, 175 

Diogenes, 133 

Diplomacy, hostile European, 300; 
record of American, 301 

Dishonesty, charges of, by enemies 
of Harlan, 235-251 

Disunion, opposition of Harlan to, 
149-154; attitude of Iowa to- 
ward, 155 

Doctors, pioneer, practice of, 20 

Dodge, Augustus C, service of, in 
Senate, 81; votes for, 84, 85; 
withdrawal of, 87; successor to, 
101; defeat of, for Senate, 135 

Dodge, Grenville M., 262 

Dole, William P., resignation of, 
207; recommendation by, 209; 
reference to, 370 

Dominican Republic, treaties be- 
tween United States and, 253 ; 
Grant's intervention in, 254 
(See also San Domingo) 

Douglas, Stephen A., opposition to 
measure of, 80 ; reference to, 
93, 106; policy of, 110, 111. 
112, 132; consistency of, 115; 
Harlan's picture of, 133; sup- 
port of, 151; bill of, 152 

Drake, Francis M., election of, 308 

Draper, Andrew S., acknowledg- 
ment to, xiv, 378; statement of, 
294 

Drunkenness, right of State to 
control, 291 

Dubuque, Harlan at, 47 

Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad, 
234 

Dubuque Herald, Newman letter 
in, 261 

Dubuque Times, Harlan opposed 
by, 217 

Durant, Thomas C, gift to Har- 
lan by, 275, 277; statement of, 
276; influence of, on Harlan, 
279 

East Indies, American commerce 
with, 123 

Education, early champion of, in 
Iowa, 41, 43, 44-50, 343; need 
of, in agriculture, 127; advo- 
cacy of, by Harlan, 140, 141; 
views of Harlan relative to, 
325-328 

Edwards, George B., letter to, 200 



INDEX 



387 



Efficiency, 326 

Elbert, John D., 352 

Election contests, early, iu Iowa, 
51-63 

Election law, publication of, 354 

Elections, effect of campaign con- 
tributions on, 278, 279, 280 

Elective studies, system of, 327; 
Harlan's opposition to, 328 

Emancipation, speech of Harlan 
in favor of, 172; proclamation 
of, 172; reference to, 301; ad- 
vocate of, 344 

Emigrants, foreign, character of, 
322, 323 

Emigration, character of, to West, 
1 

England, troops of, 171 

Engrossed Bills, Committee on, 
136 

Equality, doctrine of, 321 

Evansville (Indiana), 32 

Executive Council, power given 
to, 315 

Fairfield, speech at, 320 

Farley, Jesse P., 352 

Fessenden, William P., 93, 105, 
344; resignation of, 192 

Fillmore, Millard, administration 
of, 83 

Fish, Hamilton, 93 

Foreign relations, control of, 153 

Foreign Relations, Committee on, 
222 

Forensics, attention to, in western 
colleges, 33 

Forests, conservation of, 202 

Fort Crawford Reservation, set- 
tlers on, 119 

Fort Kearney, 167 

Fort Sumter, surrender of, 163 

Fourth Iowa Cavalry, creation of, 
164 

Free silver, Harlan's views rela- 
tive to, 332-336 

Free-Soilers, 80 

Freedmen's Bureau, establishment 
of, 185 

Fremont, John C, 103 

Fremont County, speech of Harlan 
in, 147, 148 

French, attempt of, on Mexico, 301 

French, Anson, appointment of, 
293 

Fugitive slave law, attitude of 
Harlan toward, 85, 86; repeal 
of, 136 

Game, wild, abundance of, 4 
Gardner, Stephen B., 352 



General Assembly, acts of, 51; 
election of Senator by, 82, 83, 

85, 106, 134, 135, 264, 269; 
visit of Harlan to members of, 

86, 87; ballots in, 87, 88; ir- 
regular election by, 89; election 
of members to, 108; memorial 
of, to Congress, 116; nominees 
of, 218, 219; act of, 315 

Geneva Tribunal, award by, 293 

Germans, alarm of, over naturali- 
zation, 130, 131; Harlan's 
speech printed for, 140; oppo- 
sition of, to Harlan, 263 

Geyer, Henry S., 106 

Glenwood, Harlan at, 148 

God, belief of patriots in, 321, 325 

Gold coinage, 329, 330; Harlan's 
views on subject of, 335, 336 

Golden Circle, Knights of, 179, 
301 

Governor, salary of, 41 ; candi- 
dates for, in 1895 and 1897, 
308, 309 

Graham, William A., 73 

Grammar School, organization of, 
31 

Grande Prairie, description of, 26 

Grant, James, vote for, 358 

Grant, Ulysses S., condemnation 
of, 173; hostility to, 174; de- 
fense of, by Harlan, 252-259, 
374; intervention of, in San 
Domingo, 252, 253, 254, 257; 
nature of attacks on, 255, 256; 
defender of, 344 

Great Britain, award against, 293, 
301 

Greeley, Horace, statement of, as 
to Harlan, 99 

Greenback movement, Harlan's at- 
titude toward, 329, 330 

Greencastle (Indiana), college at, 
16; social life at, 35; Harlan's 
return to, 90 

Grimes, James W., nomination 
and election of, 80, 81; mention 
of, for Senate, 83 ; candidacy 
of, for Senate, 109 ; credentials 
of, 116; friendship between 
Harlan and, 128, 129; refer- 
ence to, 136. 161, 192; Har- 
lan's reelection opposed by, 
215; break between Harlan 
and, 221; condemnation of, 
233, 234; letters from, 361, 371 

Grimes, Mrs. James W., letter to, 
365 

Grinnell, J. B., petition of, 175; 
Harlan supported by, 266; de- 
fense of, 375 



388 



INDEX 



Guelich, Theodore, opposition of, 

to Harlan, 263 
Guthrie County, 243, 244 

Habeas Corpus, writ of, 178 

Hale, John P., 93, 105; speech 
of, 97 

Halleck, Henry W., 296 

Hamilton, Robert, 352 

Hamlin, Hannibal, 159 

Hampton, George S., writ obtained 
by, 55; statement of, 354 

Hannibal (Missouri), visit to, 29; 
Harlan at, 32 

Hard-cider campaign, description 
of, 13, 14 

Harlan, Aaron, death of, 12 

Harlan, Ann Eliza (see Mrs. 
James Harlan) 

Harlan, Cyrus, death of, 12 

Harlan, Edgar R., acknowledg- 
ment to, xiii 

Harlan, James, sources for biog- 
raphy of, ix-xi; acquaintance of 
author with, xi, xii ; ancestry 
of, 1, 5; birth of, 2; boyhood 
and youth of, 7-15; education 
of, 9, 14, 16 ; books studied bv, 
10, 11, 12; religious life of, 11, 

12, 23; school taught bv, 12, 

13, 15, 21, 30, 31, 36; politics 
of, 13, 14; college life of, 16- 
34; homesickness of, 18; suc- 
cess of, as debater, 19, 20, 24, 
33 ; journey and visit of, to 
Iowa, 25-29; slavery studied 
by, 29, 30, 80; life of, in Mis- 
souri, 29-32 ; political speeches 
by, 32, 33, 34, 73; college ex- 
penses of, 34; marriage and re- 
moval of, to Iowa, 34-40; life 
of, at Iowa City, 37; election 
of, as principal of college, 39; 
candidacy of, for State Superin- 
tendent, 41-50, 60; attacks on, 
in press, 43, 353; campaigning 
by, 44-49, 353; election of, 50, 
353 ; election contests of, 51- 
63 ; bond filed by, 55 ; opposi- 
tion to, 56, 57; report of, 58, 
354; Democratic treatment of, 
61, 62, 67; defeat of, 63; study 
of law by, 64; nomination of, 
for Governor, 65 ; nomination 
declined by, 66, 70; admission 
of, to bar, 68, 70; part of, in 
public discussions, 69 ; first 
brief of, 71 ; work of, as sur- 
veyor, 72, 74, 357; election and 
plans of, as president of col- 
lege, 75-78, 357; health of, 78; 



attitude of, toward slavery, 80; 
mention of, for Senate, 81; 
nomination of, for Senate, 83, 
84; questions put to, 86; dec- 
laration of, 87; votes for, 88; 
election of, to Senate, 89; cor- 
respondence of, with Republic- 
ans, 91, 95; oath administered 
to, 93 ; membership of, on Sen- 
ate committees, 93 ; work of, in 
Senate, 94, 98, 99; speech of, 
on Kansas bill, 95, 96, 97; pe- 
tition of, 100; praise of courage 
of, 100, 101; contested election 
of, 102-107; return of, to Iowa 
in 1856, 103; supporters of, 
105 ; reelection of, to Senate, 
106, 107, 135, 218, 219; 
speeches of, for Lowe, 108; 
speech of, on Lecompton Consti- 
tution, 110-114; commendation 
of, 115, 155, 257, 259; resolu- 
tion introduced by, 115: speech 
of, on Deficiency Bill, 116-118; 
activity of, in Senate, 116, 118, 
121, 126; defense of, by Davis, 
119; part of, in State campaign 
of 1858, 120; speeches of, on 
Pacific Railroad bill, 121-126, 
166-168, 185; support of agri- 
cultural college bill by, 126, 
127, 169; friendship between 
Grimes and, 128, 129; speech 
of, on Democratic Party, 131- 
134; services of, in Senate, 136, 
140; speech of, on slavery, 137- 
140; Homestead Bill supported 
by, 141-144, 148, 166; part of, 
in presidential campaign of 
1860, 145-149; speech of, on 
secession, 150-154; Lincoln's 
conferences with, 157, 158, 159, 
185; experience of, with office- 
seekers, 160162, 180, 181, 185; 
services of, in 1861, 164, 175; 
arming of negroes favored by, 
170, 171, 172; Grant con- 
demned by, 173, 174; part of, 
in appointment of Miller, 176; 
services of, in 1862, 177, 178; 
dissatisfaction of, with prosecu- 
tion of war, 179, 180; con- 
scription favored by, 181; rail- 
road measures of, 181, 182; 
abolition of slavery favored by, 
182-184; negro suffrage op- 
posed by, 184, 185; part of, in 
campaign of 1864, 186; re- 
quirement of oath of allegiance 
favored by, 186, 187; views of, 
on exchange of prisoners, 187- 



INDEX 



389 



189; views of, on Indian pol- 
icy, 189; estimate of services 
by, 190, 191; appointment of, 
as Secretary of Interior, 192, 
195; hopes of, in new position, 
195, 196; speech of, at White 
House, 197; intimate friendship 
between Lincoln and, 197, 198; 
defense of reconstruction policy 
by, 199-201; policies of, as Sec- 
retary, 201, 202; Indian policy 
of, 203; social life of, at Wash- 
ington, 204, 205 ; charges 
against, as Secretary, 206, 218, 
250, 264, 265, 266; reforms in- 
stituted by, 206, 207, 213, 235; 
dismissal of Whitman by, 208- 
210, 368-370; resignation of, 
210-212; reelection of, opposed 
by Grimes, 215; reelection de- 
sired by, 215; newspaper opin- 
ion of, 216, 217; charges of 
corruption against, 220, 221, 
235, 236, 238-242, 246-250, 
264-268; return of, to Senate, 
222, 223; part of, in debate on 
Reconstruction, 224-228; views 
of, on negro suffrage, 228-230; 
impeachment of Johnson fa- 
vored by, 230-234; part of, in 
campaign of 1868, 236; sale of 
land by, 236, 237, 238-242; 
wealth of, 242, 243, 244; ser- 
vice of, in 1869 and 1870, 245; 
defense of Grant by, 252-259, 
374; Newman's letter about, 
261, 262; renewal of charges 
against, 264-268, 375; defeat 
of, 269; defeat accepted by, 
270; advice of, to Babb on pol- 
itics, 271-273; part of, in Cred- 
it Mobilier, 275-282; gift of 
money for reelection of, in 1865, 
275, 276, 280, 281; examina- 
tion of, 277; vindication of 
honor of, 278, 279-282; private 
life of, at Mt. Pleasant, 283, 
284 ; opponents and defenders 
of, in election of 1876, 285; re- 
quest of, not to be voted for, 
286; journey of, to West, 287; 
nomination of, for State Senate, 
288; honor declined by, 289; 
prohibitory amendment support- 
ed by, 290-293 ; appointment of, 
to Court of Claims, 293, 294; 
ability of, as lawyer, 295; 
death of wife of, 295; speech 
of, in 1893, 299-305; speech of, 
at laying of corner-stone of 
monument, 306, 307; support 



of, for nomination for Governor, 
308, 309; address of, at laying 
of corner-stone of Historical 
Building, 310, 311; visit of, to 
Alvin Saunders, 311; illness 
and death of, 312; Governor's 
proclamation on death of, 313; 
funeral services for, 314; statue 
of, 315; grave of, 316; speeches 
and addresses of, 317-339, 340; 
speech of, to old settlers, 317- 
320; Fourth of July oration by, 
320-325 ; views of, on educa- 
tion, 325-328; views of, on Cap- 
ital and Labor, 328, 329; cur- 
rency question discussed by, 
329, 330; speech of, on temper- 
ance and tariff questions, 330- 
332 ; free silver views of, 332- 
336; relations of, with Lincoln, 
336-338; character and services 
of, 339-345; appearance of, 
339; ability of, 340, 341; 
breadth of view of, 340; belief 
of, in common people, 341, 342; 
private life of, 343 ; estimate of 
public life of, 343-345; lesson 
in career of, 345 ; votes cast for, 
355, 360, 376; partner of, 357; 
journey of, to Washington, 358; 
difficulties of, as Secretary of 
Interior, 368 

Harlan, Mrs. James, services of, 
during war, 178, 295, 296; so- 
cial life of, 204, 205; property 
of, 243 ; journey of, to West, 
287; death of, 295; sketch of 
life of, 378 (See also Ann Eliza 
Peek) 

Harlan, Jane, education of, 19; 
reference to, 36 

Harlan, Lydia, education of, 19; 
husband of, 25; reference to, 
36 

Harlan, Mary, death of, 12 

Harlan, Mary Eunice, birth of, 40; 
escort of, 196 ; marriage of, 
238 ; reference to, 352 

Harlan, Silas, birth of, 1; mar- 
riage of, 2, 8 ; pioneer life of. 
2-5 ; title given to, 5 ; preachers 
at house of, 8, 9; illness of, 20 

Harlan, William A., services of, 
247, 248, 265 ; illness and death 
of, 287, 288 

Hart, Anson, 38, 352 

Hart, Mrs. Anson, election of, 39 

Hart, Edward K., 352 

Hatton, Prank, Harlan supported 
bv, 284 

Hayti, affairs in, 257 



390 



INDEX 



Hempstead, Stephen, election of, 
67 

Henderson, Stephen H., surveying 
party under, 73 

Henderson, William H., opinion 
of, 69 

Henegar, Miss, 31 

Henn, Bernhart, votes for, 87, 358 

Henry County, politics in, 48, 49; 
farm owned by Harlan in, 243, 
244; nomination of Harlan in, 
288, 289; old settlers' meeting 
in, 317 

Hildreth, Alonzo B. F., letter to, 
366 

Historical Building, laying of 
corner-stone of, 310, 311 

History, preservation of, in Iowa, 
310, 311 

Home League, work of, 179 

Homestead Bill, support of, by 
Harlan, 141-144; objections to, 
142, 143; passage of, 144, 165, 
301; advocate of, 201, 344 

Houston, Samuel, 93 ; Harlan con- 
gratulated by, 97 

Howe, Samuel B., vote for, 355 

Howe, Samuel Storrs, letter from, 
366 

Howell, James B., 83 

Hubbard, Asahel W., senatorial 
aspirations of, 217 

Huestis, A. J., letter from, 48, 49 

Hungarians, preemption right of, 
in Iowa, 118 

Hunter, Robert M. T., motion of, 
102; resolutions of, 149; op- 
ponent of, 150 

Illiteracy, remarks on, 127; atti- 
tude of Harlan toward, 323, 324 

Immigration, promotion of, to 
West, 141-143; attitude of Har- 
lan toward, 322, 323 

Immorality, national, 68 

Imports, foreign, 331 

Independence Day, 325 

Indian Affairs, Bureau of, ap- 
pointment of head of, 207; 
Whitman dismissed from, 208- 
210, 368-370; defense of ac- 
tions of, 223 

Indian Affairs, Committee on, 166, 
189, 245; resolution on, 246 

Indiana, pioneer life in, 1-6; cir- 
cuit-riders in, 8, 9; Senator 
from, 126; product of pioneer 
life of, 345 

Indians, policy of Harlan relative 
to, 178, 189, 190, 191; money 
spent for, 266 



Ingersoll, L. D., request of, 190; 
letter to, 367 

Institutions, American, sources of 
danger to, 322-325 

Intemperance, danger of, 323 

Interior, Secretary of, work of 
Harlan as, 192-212, 206, 207, 
208, 213, 216, 217, 221, 369, 
370; resignation of Harlan as, 
210-212, 220 

Internal improvements, political 
parties and, 69; reference to, 
74, 350 

Iowa, attitude toward slavery in, 
80; railroad route favored by 
Senators of, 125 ; campaign of 
1859 in, 130-135; railroads in, 
167; growth and development 
of, 310, 319, 320; art and his- 
tory in, 311; prophecy as to 
future of, 322; services of Har- 
lan to, 343 

Iowa, Territory of, journey to, in 
1843, 25, 26: population of, 27; 
Harlan's recollections of, 317- 
320 

Icwa Capital Reporter, 67; file of, 
353 

Iowa City, journey to, in 1846, 
37; early college at, 38, 39; 
social life at, 40, 65; news- 
papers at, 43, 67; political 
meeting at, 47; school director 
of, 55 ; lynching at, 65 ; Bibles 
burned at, 65; oration at, 68; 
railroad controversy at, 69; 
Harlan home in, 352 

Iowa City College, principal of, 
36, 40; organization of, 37, 38; 
departments of, 39 ; trustees of, 
352; building of, 352 

Iowa City Republican, editorials 
by Harlan in, 70; Harlan op- 
posed by, 217 

Iowa Standard, The, Harlan sup- 
ported by, 53, 54 

Iowa State Register, Harlan 
praised by, 233, 387; Harlan 
defended by, 237; Harlan op- 
posed by, 267, 268; Harlan de- 
nounced by, 280, 281; refusal 
of editor of, to arraign Harlan, 
285; Harlan's speech commend- 
ed in, 304; editorial in, 309 

Iowa Wesleyan University, early 
president of, 75, 343; new pres- 
ident of, 312; services in chapel 
of, 314; gift to, 314: home of 
presidents of, 315; reference to, 
328; Harlan Club of, 336; 
sketch of, 357 



INDEX 



391 



Jackson County, early election in, 
62 

Jackson Township (Calhoun Coun- 
ty), 74 

Jennison, Milton M., 352 

Jewett, Leonard, 352 

Johnson, Andrew, desire of, rela- 
tive to Harlan, 199 ; reconstruc- 
tion policy of, 199, 200, 201, 
210, 211; reception by, 204; 
Harlan's break with, 208, 220; 
disruption of Cabinet of, 210- 

212, 217; Harlan's part in im- 
peachment of, 223, 230-234, 
340; Harlan's protest against 
policy of, 224, 225, 226; tour 
of, 228; order of, 249; Cabinet 
of, 367 

Johnson County, suit in, 55 ; Sons 

of Temperance in, 65 
Johnstone, Edward, 85, 379 
Jones, George W., visit of, to Har- 
lan, 91; Harlan's credentials 
presented by, 93 ; motion of, 
102, 103; election of successor 
to, 108, 116; view of, on Le- 
compton Constitution, 114; con- 
fusion of, 117 
Judges, politics and, 59, 60 
Judiciary, Committee on, 102, 103, 
104; resolution referred to, 115 

Kansas, railroads in, 167; troops 
in, 170; sale of land in, 236, 
238, 239-242, 264; free-soilers 
in, 344 

Kansas, Territory of, slavery in, 
79, 95, 110; question of consti- 
tution for, 95, 96, 97, 109-114; 
admission of, 98, 100, 103, 110; 
memorial relative to, 99 ; out- 
rages in, 109; Democratic treat- 
ment of, 113, 131 

Kansas-Nebraska bill, results of, 
79, 80; principles of. 111, 112 

Kansas River, railroad to mouth 
of, 167 

Kasson, John A., 135 ; senatorial 
aspirations of, 217 

Keel-boats, use of, 28 

Keokuk, visit of Harlan to, in 
1843, 28, 29 

Killpatrick, Ephraim, 352 

King, William R., 73 

Kirkwood, Samuel J., election of, 
134; candidacy of, for Senate, 

213, 217, 262, 266, 285; letter 
from Harlan to, 214; charges 
against, 218; election of, for 
short term, 219; break between 
Harlan and, 221, 268, 372; 



election of, to Senate, 286; let- 
ter to, 371; statue of, 379 

Knight, Dr., 351 

Knowledge, importance of, 327 

Knownothing Party, principles of, 
130, 131 

Knoxville (Illinois), 26 

Kopp, W. F., acknowledgment to, 
siii 

Labor and Capital, views of Har- 
lan relative to, 328, 329 

Lake Michigan, canal to, 175 

Lamotte prairie, life on, 2 ; visit 
to, 12 

Land oflBces, Harlan opposed by, 
57 

Lane, James H., statement of, to 
Harlan, 99; charge made by, 
169 

Larrabee, Mrs., school taught by, 
35 

Laws, publication of, 51, 53 

Leadership, preparation for, in 
college, 327 

"Leander" (steamer), travel by, 
29 

"Leaves of Grass", reading of, by 
Harlan, 209 

Lecompton Constitution, controver- 
sy over, in Senate, 109-114 

Lee, Fernando H., 38 

Legislation, national, control of, 
152 

Liberia, negro colony of, 183 

License system, 292 

Lincoln, Abraham, xi ; principles 
of, 149; supporters of, 151; in- 
auguration of, 155, 159; advice 
sought by, 157, 185; inaugural 
address of, 159; proclamations 
of, 163 ; views of, on arming of 
negroes, 172; emancipation 
proclamation of, 172; Grant de- 
fended by, 173; appointment of 
Miller by, 177; charges made 
against, 178; appointment of 
Harlan by, 192, 195, 216; 
friendship between Harlan and, 
196; assassination of, 197, 198; 
policy of, toward South, 226; 
appointment of Governor by, 
311; Harlan's recollections of, 
336, 338; description of family 
of, 363 

Lincoln, Robert, Miss Harlan es- 
corted by, 196; marriage of, 
238; reference to, 312; ac- 
knowledgment to, 366 

Lincoln, Mrs. Robert T., acknowl- 
edgment to, xii; presence of, at 



392 



INDEX 



father's death, 312; gift of, 

314; reference to, 352 
Lincoln Monument Association, 

president of, 198 
Liquor question, solution of, in 

Iowa, 297, 298; Harlan's views 

on, 299, 305, 331 
Liquors, evils due to, 290-292; 

regulation of manufacture and 

sale of, 292 
Log cabin, erection of, 3, 4 
"Louis Oak" (steamer), 28 
Lowe, Ralph P., 108, 154 
Lucas, Robert, 352 
"Lyceum", Harlan before, 11 
Lynch law, condemnation of, 65 
Lynching, case of, 65 

McArthur, A. E., 352 

McCrary, George W., candidacy of, 
285 

McCullough, Hugh, selection of, 
192 

McFarland, Samuel, suggestions of, 
82; letter from, 86, 358 

McFarland Post, members of, 295 

McGregor, railroad from, 182 

McKay, William, vote for, 358 

McKibbin, George B., acknowledg- 
ment to, xiii 

Mail routes, petitions for, in Iowa, 
116, 136 

Majority, power of, 197; govern- 
ment by, 321 

Manufactures, increase of, 301 

Manufactures, Committee on, 93 

Marion, address at, 90 

Marion County, early election in, 
62 

Mason, Charles, political life of, 
42; Whig rival of, 43, 44; sar- 
castic letter by, 46; supporters 
of, 48, 52, 54; defeat of, 50, 
353; opinion of 354 

Mason, James M., Harlan's replv 
to, 126. 127 

Massachusetts, Knownothingism in, 
130 

Maury, M. F., work of, 94 

Maximilian, Prince, 211 

Medicine, practice of, among pio- 
neers, 20 

Memorial Day, 325 

Memory, place of, in education, 
327 

Methodist Episcopal Church, cir- 
cuit-riders of, 8, 9 ; college of, 
at Iowa City, 38; support of 
Iowa Conference of, 78 ; supjjort 
of Harlan by, 129, 260-262, 
268; lobbying by preachers of. 



220; district conference of, 312, 
328 

Mexican war, beginning of, 255 

Mexico, acquisition of, 132 ; Max- 
imilian episode in, 211, 301; 
silver coinage in, 336 

Military road, need of, to Califor- 
nia, 121, 122, 123 

Miller, DeWitt, letter from Harlan 
to, 369, 370 

Miller, Samuel F., appointment of, 
176, 365; career of, 177 

Mines, gold and silver, 301 

Mining, Bureau of, 202 

Minnesota, Senator from, 119; 
route favored by Senators of, 
125; railroads in, 167 

Minnesota, Territory of, admission 
of, 116 

Mississippi River, rapids in, 28 ; 
travel on, 32; canal to, 175; 
bridge across, 234; Iowa settle- 
ments along, 318 

Missouri, winter spent by Harlan 
in, 29-32; border ruffians of, 
96; route favored by Senators 
of, 125; railroads in, 167; post- 
masters in, 256 

Missouri Compromise, operation of, 
79 ; opposition to, 85 ; purpose 
of repeal of, 139 

Missouri River, railroad from, to 
San Francisco, 121, 126, 167; 
ferry over, 148 ; railroad to, 
182 

Mob, fear of violence of, 147, 148 

Mobile and Ohio Railroad, bill rel- 
ative to, 126 

Mobs, violence of, 27 

Monarchy, durability of, 21 

Money, Harlan's views on subject 
of, 333, 334 

Monmouth (Illinois), 26 

Monroe County (Missouri), winter 
spent by Harlan in, 30 

Montrose, visit to, in 1843, 28 

Monument, Soldiers' and Sailors', 
unveiling and dedication of, 
306, 307 

Mormons, citv of, 28 

Morrill, Justin S., bill of, 169 

Morrill, Lot M., 277 

Mount, Sermon on, 303 

Mt. Pleasant, speech by Harlan 
at, 48, 49, 145; plank road to. 
71; visit of Jones to, 91; jour- 
ney to Washington from, 92 ; 
Harlan home at, 107, 108; war 
troops at, 164; property owned 
by Harlan at, 243, 244; Har- 
lan's return to private life at, 



INDEX 



393 



274, 283, 343; Forest Home 
Cemetery at, 295 ; illness, death 
and funeral of Harlan at, 312, 
313, 314; grave of Harlan at, 
316 

Mt. Pleasant Collegiate Institute, 
principal of, 48; election of 
Harlan as principal of, 75, 76; 
reorganization of, 77; reference 
to, 79, 90 

Muscatine Journal, opinion of, 216 

National Bank, re-charter of, 74 

National Union Convention, call 
for, 211 

Naturalization laws, desire for 
change of, 130, 131; validity 
of, 301 

Nauvoo, view of, 28 

Naval Observatory, Government, 
work of, 94 

Navy, appropriation for, 140 

Navy, Secretary of, 192 

Nebraska, Territory of, slavery in, 
79 ; speech by JHarlan in, 148 ; 
Governor of, 312; free-soilers 
in, 344 

Nebraska City, speech by Harlan 
at, 148 

Negro suffrage, 184; defeat of, in 
Iowa, 199, 200; Harlan's views 
on subject of, 228 

Negroes, power of endurance of, 
138; Democratic view of, 139; 
arming of, for war. 170-172, 
344; enlistment of, 181 

"New Discovery", life in, 5 ; com- 
ing of settlers to, 8 ; circuit- 
rider in, 8 

New England, railroad route fa- 
vored by Senators from, 125 

New York, railroad route favored 
by Senators of, 125 

New York Times, editorial on Har- 
lan in, 100 ; Harlan commended 
by, 258 

New York Tribune, Harlan 
praised by, 114 

Newbold, Joshua G., candidacy of, 
288; motion made by, 289 

Newman, John P., letter written 
by, 261, 262 

Newspapers, Harlan's opinion of 
correspondents to, 242 

North Carolina, secession of, 163 

Northern Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany, resolution relative to, 246 

Northwestern University, 78 

O'Connor, W. D., charge of. 
against Harlan, 209, 210, 368 



Office, removals from, by Johnson, 

232, 233 
Office-seekers, Harlan's experience 

with, 160-162 ; pressure of, on 

Harlan, 180, 181 
Ohio, troops from, 173 
Ohio River, travel on, 32 
Old Point Comfort (Virginia), 

death of Mrs. Harlan at, 295 
Omaha (Nebraska), visit of Har- 
lan to, 311 
Ordinance of 1787, spirit of, 9 
Oregon, Territory of, homestead 

law in, 143 
Osage Indians, sale of reservation 

of, 246 
Oskaloosa, road from, 45 
Otto, Judge, 199 
Ottumiva Courier, report in, 193 

Pacific Railroad, discussion of, in 
Congress, 121; question of loca- 
tion of, 122-124; selection of 
route for, 125, 126; passage of 
bill for, 165, 166-168; gauge of, 
178; amendment to bill for, 
185 ; Harlan's part in passage 
of bills for, 191; building of, 
207, 223, 247, 248; advocate of, 
344; investigation of affairs of, 
368 (See also Union Pacific 
Railroad) 

Pacific Railroad, Committee on, 
222 

Paine, Thomas, works of, 12 

Paper money, views of Harlan rel- 
ative to, 329, 330 

Paris (Missouri), visit to, in 1843, 
29 

Park County (Indiana), pioneer 
life in, 2-6; circuit-riders in, 8, 
9 ; public library of, 10 ; mili- 
tary company of, 21; politics in, 
24, 25, 33 

Park Countv Seminary, life at, 
14, 15 

Parties, political, spirit of, 68 

Parvin, John A., 352 

Patent Office, policy toward, 203 

Patterson. Peter H., 352 

Peace Convention, meeting of, 155 

Peck, Ann Eliza, courting and 
marriage of, 35, 36; guardian 
of, 351 (See also Mrs. James 
Harlan) 

Pennsylvania, railroad route fa- 
vored by Senators of, 125 

Pensions, advocate of, 202 ; mat- 
ter of Indian, 265 

Pensions, Committee on, 136 

Peoria (Illinois), 26 



394 



INDEX 



Perkins, George D., acknowledg- 
ment to, xiv 

Philological Society, defeat of, 20, 
21 

Physicians, practice of early, 20 

Pierce, Franklin, candidacy of, 
73; reference to. 131 

Pioneers, western, character of, 1; 
life of, in Indiana, 1-6, 8, 9; 
speech to, by Harlan, 317-320; 
Harlan's knowledge of life of, 
339, 340 

Pittsburg Landing, report of bat- 
tles at, 173 ; Iowa troops at, 
173 ; work of Mrs. Harlan at, 
296 

Plank road, completion of, 71 

Platonean Literary Society, mem- 
ber of, 20, 24; victory of, 21; 
Harlan at celebration of, 91 

Platte River, railroad route along, 
167, 168 

Plebeians, right of, in Rome, 112 

Poland Committee, investigation 
by, 275, 277 

Pole-raising, scene at, 147 

Politics, description of, in 1840, 
13, 14; State, in 1859, 130- 
135; lawj-ers in, 271, 272; ad- 
vice of Harlan relative to, 271- 
273 

Poore, Richard, 37 

Population, increase of, 322 

Post Office, Committee on, 222 

Post offices, appropriation bill for, 
126 

Post Roads, Committee on, 222 

Post route, establishment of, 126 

Powell, L. W., charge made by, 
178 

Powers, J. H., statement of, 194; 
letter from, 367 

Prairie, description of, 26 

Prairie chickens, 318 

Preemption, right of, for settlers 
in Iowa, 118, 136; legislation 
on subject of, 201 

President, authority conferred on, 
121, 122, 123 

Presidential election, slogan of, in 
1856, 103 

Price, Hiram, candidacy of, 285 

Printing, Committee on, 160, 165 

Prisoners of war, exchange of, 
187-189 

Prohibition, attitude of Harlan to- 
ward, 290-293, 330, 331; ques- 
tion of, in Iowa, 297, 302, 305 

Prohibitory law, enforcement of, in 
Iowa, 292, 298; passage of, 
297; results of, 302, 305 



Protection, principle of, 73, 331 

Public buildings, land grant for, 
118 

Public lands, sale of, 74, 350; bill 
relative to, 95 ; grant of, for 
agricultural colleges, 127; prob- 
lem of disposal of, 136, 141- 
144; Harlan's attitude toward 
question of, 201, 202; disposal 
of, by Harlan, 238-242, 246 

Public Lands, Committee on, Har- 
lan's work in, 115, 118, 141, 
160, 165, 166, 182 

Pugh, George E., 105 

Railroads, newspaper controversy 
over, 69; days before, 71; land 
grants in aid of, 116, 181, 182, 
366; question of State aid to, 
in Iowa, 120; government aid 
to, 190 ; Congressional history 
of, 245, 246; Harlan's interest 
in, in Iowa, 276, 277; building 
of, 301: county bonds for, 376 

Reagan, William C, 352 

Rebellion, suppression of, 164 

Rebels, exchange of prisoners 
with, 188 

Reconstruction, Lincoln's speech 
on, 196, 197; Johnson's policy 
of, 199, 200, 210, 211, 225; 
Harlan's views on, 224-230; 
work of, 301 

Reconstruction Period, Diary of 
the, 210 

Regiments, Iowa, monument to, 
306, 307 

Registration, bill for, 184 

Reister, Adam, 352 

Religion, freedom of, 324 

Representatives, House of (State), 
action of, 58; scene in hall of, 
88, 89 

Representatives, House of (United 
States), Iowa delegation in, 
115, 116 

Republican Congressional Com- 
mittee, affairs of, 186 

Republican government, durability 
of, 21; principles of, 278 

Republican Partv, birth of, in 
Iowa, 80; victory of, 81, 89, 
135, 148, 305: Harlan's place 
in, 91, 103, 106; opposition to, 
in 1855, 92, 93; first platform 
of, 95 ; attitude of, toward Kan- 
sas, 112; campaign of, in Iowa 
in 1859, 130-134; policy of, to- 
ward Territories, 138; clubs of, 
145 ; rewards of members of, 
160, 161; supremacy of, in 



INDEX 



395 



1861, 165; opposition to Har- 
lan in, 273 ; landmark in his- 
tory of, in Iowa, 297, 305; 
causes for defeat of, in 1889 
and 1891, 298, 302; Harlan's 
speech to convention of, 299- 
305, 308; policies of, 300; 
birth and record of, 300, 301; 
exhortation to, 303, 304; can- 
didates of, in 1895 and 1897, 
308, 309 

Republican State Convention, Har- 
lan's speech at, in 1859, 131- 
134; Harlan's speech at, in 
1893, 297-306; nomination by, 
in 1895 and 1897, 308, 309 

Revenue tariff, views of Harlan 
relative to, 331 

Revolutionary War, negroes in, 
170 

Rice, Henry M., charges against, 
119; credentials of, 361 

Rich, Jacob, acknowledgment to, 
xiv; attitude of, toward Har- 
lan, 214, 215; letter of, 371 

Richardson, D. N., 379 

Richmond (Virginia), 337 

Riflemen, Park County, member 
of, 21 

Rivers, improvement of, 116; 
transportation by, 301 

Roads, early, nature of, 44 

Rock Island, national armory at, 
175; bridge at, 234 

Rockville (Indiana), seminary at, 
14; Clay Club at, 32, 33 

"Rockv Fork", speech by Harlan 
at, 32 

Rome, plebeians at, 112; Republic 
of, 132 

Roseville (Indiana), speech by 
Harlan at, 33 

Salem, speech by Harlan at, 146 
Salter, William, acknowledgment 

to, xiii 
Samana Bay, lease of, 252 
San Domingo, intervention in, 

252, 253, 257; Grant's plans 

in regard to, 344 
San Francisco, railroad to, 121; 

journey of Harlan to, 287, 288 
Sargent, George B., application 

to, 72 
Saunders, Alvin, suggestions of, 

82; letter from, 115, 360; 

statement of, 154; visit of Har- 
lan to, 311; political life of, 

311, 312 
Savery Hotel, crowd of politicians 

at, 270 



School Fund Commissioners, elec- 
tion of, 52 ; troubles of, in 
1846, 55; duty of, 56; instruc- 
tions to, 57 

School funds, management of, 56; 
investment of, 58; reference to, 
355 

School lands, selection of, 56, 57; 
sale of, 58 

School-master, pioneer, coming of, 
9 

Schools, public, education of chil- 
dren in, 140, 141; svstem of, 
301, 343; land grant "used for, 
354 

Schurz, Carl, attack on Grant bv, 
252, 253, 256; Harlan's reply 
to, 253-257, 258 

Scott, Winfield, candidacy of, 73 

Secession, advocates of, i50; pas- 
sage of Ordinances of, 154, 155, 
163; attitude of Iowa toward, 
155; Lincoln's policy toward, 
157; repeal of Ordinance of, 
225 

Sells, Elijah, money spent by, 
266; Harlan aided by, 372; 
sworn statement of, 377 

Senate (State), action of, in 1855, 
88, 89; resolutions of, 93, 102, 
105 ; nomination of Harlan for, 
288, 289 

Senate (United States), Harlan in, 
68, 93-101; first election of 
Harlan to, 78-89; candidates 
for, in 1854, 82, 83; contested 
election of Harlan in, 102-107; 
return of Harlan to, 106, 107; 
controversy over Lecompton 
Constitution in, 109-114; activ- 
ity of Harlan in. 116, 118, 119; 
reelection of Harlan to, 135, 
219, 220; Harlan's services in, 
136-144, 165-175, 177; Har- 
lan's attack on South in, 149- 
154; organization of, in 1861, 
159, 160; arming of negroes 
debated in, 172; Miller's ap- 
pointment confirmed by, 177; 
debate on abolition of slavery 
in, 182-184; resignation of 
Harlan from, 193 ; candidates 
for, to succeed Harlan, 213, 
217, 262; reelection to, desired 
by Harlan, 215, 216, 260; de- 
bate on reconstruction in, 224- 
230 ; power of, in appointments, 
231, 233, 245; defense of 
Grant in, 252-259; Harlan- 
Allison contest for, 260-274; 
members of, 311, 312; estimate 



396 



INDEX 



of Harlan's services in, 341, 
343-345 

Senatorial elections, control of, in 
Iowa, 250 

Settlers, actual, disposal of lands 
to, 142, 143 ; Harlan's speeches 
at meetings of old, 317-320 

Seward, William H., doctrine of, 
86; reference to, 93, 98, 99, 
105, 204, 344: speech of, 97 

Shambaugh, Benj. P., editor's in- 
troduction by, vii; acknowledg- 
ment to, xii, xiii 

Shaw, Leslie M., nomination of, 
309 ; proclamation of, on death 
of Harlan, 313 

Sherman, John, Grant defended 
by, 173, 174; wish of, 255 

Sherman, William T., story of, 
258, 259 

Shiloh, battle of. Grant blamed 
after, 173, 174; Mrs. Harlan's 
work at, 296; account of, 365 

Sidney, speech at, 147, 148 

Silver, views of Harlan on free 
coinage of, 332-336 

Simpson, Matthew, advice of, 17; 
letter of, 30; offer of, 33; mar- 
riage ceremony performed by, 
36; influence of, 80; eloquence 
of, 349 

Sioux Indians, massacre by, 116 

Slavery, study of, by Harlan, 29, 
30; attack on, 68; non-inter- 
ference with, 74; encroachments 
of, into West, 79, 96; attitude 
of Harlan toward, 80, 86, 90, 
100, 110, 114, 134, 152, 190; 
opponents of, 81; opposition to, 
in Iowa, 103, 114; Democratic 
view of, 113, 114, 131-133; ex- 
tension of, into Territories, 137- 
140, 160; petitions for aboli- 
tion of, 175; Harlan's speech 
on abolition of, 182-184, 344; 
evils of, 183 

Slaves, trade in, 138; powers of 
endurance of, 138; arming of, 
for war, 170, 171, 172; eman- 
cipation of, 172, 174, 301; 
question of title in, 182, 183; 
status of, 183 ; advocate of 
emancipation of, 344 

Smith, Mark, defeat of, 24 

Smith, William, labors of, 8, 9 

Snow, George C, journey of, to 
West, 25-31; return of, to Indi- 
ana, 32 ; friendship between 
Harlan and, 36 

Snyder, C. M., acknowledgment 
to, xiii 



Society, nature of, in America, 14, 
15 

Soldiers, old, bounty lands for, 
142; medical treatment of, 178; 
care of sick and wounded, 295, 
296 

Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, 
speech at laving of corner-stone 
of, 306, 307 

South, claim of, as to slaves, 114; 
threat of, 139 ; opposition of, to 
homestead bill, 144 ; defenders 
of, in Senate, 149; Harlan's 
view of attitude of, 150-154; 
secession of, 154, 155 ; war be- 
gun by, 163 ; treatment of pris- 
oners in, 187-189; legality of 
State governments in, 224; re- 
construction in, 225, 301; de- 
fective provisional governments 
in, 226; negro suffrage in, 228- 
230 

South Carolina, settlers of, 1 ; se- 
cession of, 154, 163 

Southern Pacific Railroad, 246 

Speech, freedom of, 148 

Speeches and addresses, 317-338 

Speed, James, 211 

Spencer, Roswell H., 352 

Spirit Lake, massacre at, 116, 136 

Springer, Francis, 83 

Springfield (Illinois), burial of 
Lincoln at, 198 

Stafford, C. L., 314 

Stage-coach, travel by, 28, 29 

Stanton, Edwin M., war measures 
of, 211; removal of, 230-232 

Starr, Henry W., 83 

States, bills for agricultural col- 
leges in, 126, 127 

Statuary Hall, National, statue of 
Harlan in, 315 

Steamboats, river, 28 

Stewart, I. I., 77 

Stewart, William M., charges of. 

Stone, William M., correspondence 
between Kirkwood and, 213, 
214; senatorial aspirations of, 
217; letter of. 371 

Street, Joseph H. D., 85 

Sturgis, Mr., sale of land to, 236, 
237 

Suffrage, negro, right of, 184; 
question of, in 1865, 199, 200 

Sugar, duty on, 116 

Sumner, Charles, 93, 98, 99, 197, 
344; remarks of, to Harlan, 96; 
attack on Grant by, 252, 253, 
256; Harlan's reply to, 253- 
257, 258 



INDEX 



397 



Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion, candidacy of Harlan for, 
41-50, 60-63; opposition to first, 
51-58; election of, 70; services 
of Harlan as, 340, 343, 354 

Supreme Court (State), sham ap- 
peal to, 56; judgeships in, 81; 
decision of, 293, 297, 330 

Supreme Court (United States), 
force of decisions of, 86, 87; 
control of, 152 ; appointments 
to, 176, 177; removal of judges 
of, 231, 232 

Surveyor General, deputy of, 72 ; 
attack on course of, 117 

Surveys, public, nature of, 72, 73, 
74 

Talbot I'. Be Forest, Harlan's 
brief in case of, 71 

Tariff, 73 ; views of Harlan on 
subject of, 331 

Taxation, national, 331 

Taylor, Mrs. Alice L., acknowl- 
edgment to, xiii, 379 

Teacher, pioneer, salary of, 13 

"Tecumseh, Old", 259 

Teesdale, J., letter of, 367 

Temperance, cause of, in Iowa, 
298, 330; Harlan's support of 
cause of, 299 

Temperance, Sons of, for Johnson 
County, 65 

Tenure of Office Act, violation of, 
by Johnson, 231, 232; Harlan's 
attitude toward repeal of, 245 

Territories, slavery in, 79, 81; 
power of Congress over, 96, 97, 
110; Democratic treatment of 
officers of, 113, 114, 131, 133; 
extension of slavery into, 137- 
140, 160 ; advocate of rights of, 
148, 190 

Terry, Jeremiah, friendship be- 
tween Harlan and, 11; refer- 
ence to, 72 

Thomas, Lorenzo, appointment of, 
232, 233 

Thompson, James L., search of, 
for principal, 36, 37; reference 
to, 38, 44, 352; nomination and 
defeat of, 67; support of, by 
Harlan, 68; sketch of life of, 
351 

Tippecanoe, battle-field of, 13 

Tipton, Harlan at, 47 

Toombs, Robert, 93 ; report of, 
105; motion made by, 119 

Toucey, Isaac, 106 

Towns, early, in Iowa, 318 

Trade, American interest in, 123 



Treasury, Secretary of, appoint- 
ment of, 159 

Treaties, Cherokee Indian, effect 
of, 241, 242 

Trumbull, Lyman, 93, 105, 107, 
344 

Union, threat of dissolution of, 
139, 140; secession from, 154 
nature of forces of, 170-172 
troops of, in West, 174; med- 
ical treatment of forces of, 178 

Union Hotel, visitors at, 26 

Union Pacific Railroad, construc- 
tion of, 203, 234; Harlan's 
connection with, 276, 277, 278; 
attitude of Harlan toward, 279 
(See also Pacific Railroad) 

Union Party, convention of, in 
1866, 211; platform of, 299 

United States, annexation of San 
Domingo to, 252 ; Geneva 
award to, 293 ; causes of 
growth of, 320-332; prophecy 
as to future of, 322 

Universities, land grants to, 169 

University of Iowa, State Board 
of Trustees of, 58 ; Medical 
Laboratory Building of, 356 

Urbana (Indiana), 26 

Usher, John P., resignation of, 
192, 199; administration of, 
206, 207 

Utah, war in, 255 

Values, theory of, 329, 333 
Van der Zee, Jacob, acknowledg- 
ment to, xiv 
Van Hagan, Isaac P., 352 
Veterans, reunion of, 325 
Veto power. President's, 74, 350 
Vincent, James, letter from Har- 
lan to, 228 
Vincent, Leon H., 370 
Virginia, illiteracy of people of, 

127; secession of, 155 
Voltaire, works of, 12 

Wabash River, ferry on, 25, 26 
Wade, Benjamin F., 93, 344 
Waite, J. L., acknowledgment to, 

xiv 
Walker, Nellie V., statue made by, 

315 
Walker, R. J., 112 
Wapello, visit of Harlan to, in 

1843, 28; Indian village near 

site of, 350 
War, power to declare, 254, 255 
War, Secretarv of, appointment 

of, 158, 159, 232, 233; diffi- 



398 



INDEX 



culty between Harlan and, 207; 
removal of, 230, 231 

War of 1812, veterans of, 136 

Warren, Fitz Henry, letter to, 49; 
political career of, 82, 83 ; op- 
position to, 84; defeat of, 85; 
reference to, 135 ; senatorial as- 
pirations of, 217 

Warren County (Ohio), early set- 
tlers of, 1 

Washburne, Elihu B., Grant de- 
fended by, 174 

Washington (D. C), Harlan's first 
winter in, 90-101; journey to, 
92; Republicans in danger at, 
93; right of suffrage in, 184, 
185; social life at, in 1866, 
204, 205 ; Harlan's impressions 
of, 358 

Water, transportation by, 301 

Wealth, danger of, in America, 
324 

Weather Bureau, legislation on 
subject of, 94 

Webster City, meeting at, 155 

Weed, Bartholomew, 352 

Welles, Gideon, diary of, 210 

Wells, H. G., appointment of, 
293; resignation of, 294 

West, emigrants to, 1 ; encroach- 
ments of slavery in, 79 ; need 
of settlers in, 141-143 ; legisla- 
tive measures for development 
of, 170; friend of, 222 

Whicher, Stephen, 83 

Whig Party, campaign of, in 
1840, 13, 14; Harlan's con- 
nection with, 24, 25, 32, 43, 
65 ; victory of, in Iowa, 50, 52 ; 
press of, 53; blow to, 66, 70; 
defeat of, in 1850, 67; prin- 
ciples of, 73, 74; end of, in 
Iowa, 80 



Whig State Convention, Harlan 
nominated at, in 1850, 65 

Whigs, anti-slavery, 80 

White House, Lincoln's speech at. 
196 

Whitcomb, Mary R., acknowledg- 
ment to, xiii 

Whitman, Walt., dismissal of, by 
Harlan, 208-210; services of, 
368; letter of Harlan relative to 
dismissal of. 369, 370 

"Wide Awakes", reception given 
to Harlan by, 145 

Wild cat currency, end of, 300 

Williams, Joseph, 352 

Wilson, James P., complaint of, 
161, 162; letter from Harlan 
to, 195; reference to, 250; can- 
didacy of, 262, 263; letter to, 
367; vote for, 376 

Wilson Committee, investigation 
by, 275, 277 

Wiltse, H. A., letter from, 372 

Wisconsin, State of, preservation 
of history in, 311 

Wisconsin, Territory of, capital of, 
27 

Wolves, abundance of. 318 

Woman Suffrage, right of, 184 

Women's Relief Corps, members 
of, 295 

Woodward, William G., support 
of, by Harlan, 70 

Woolson, John S., comment of, 
285; candidacy of, 288; motion 
of, 289 

Wright, George G., 83, 135, 379; 
election of, as Senator, 260; 
renomination declined by. 284 

Wright. James, letter from Harlan 
to, 192, 367 

Yellow Springs, village of, 28 



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